“We need to reinvent the co-op” – Writings and rehearsals by Nathan Schneider

Writings and rehearsals by Nathan Schneider

Welcome. I’m a professor of media studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, where I direct the Media Economies Design Lab and teach and learn from our students. I’ve written a book each on online democracy, cooperative enterprise, the Occupy movement, and God, and I’ve edited ones about solidarity economies, crypto, and co-ops. Reporting articles for both magazines and academic journals keeps my notebooks filled. Working with others to build a democratic economy keeps me accountable.

Dripline: How we co-operate | Hypha

Notes on incorporation, co-operation, and solidarity from a one year old co-op.

Rewilding the Web: my workshop report from Edinburgh

Notes from a wonderfully interdisciplinary Edinburgh workshop on 'Rewilding the Web', ranging coopetition and biological variety through the philosophy of self-organisation, polycrisis governance, protopian science fiction, and moderation seen through the lens of artisanal cheese.

Regina Harsanyi on Twitter / X

I've realized that a commons-based, peer-to-peer society is only possible at scale if anchored in a widely believed, collectively internalized narrative, or what sociologist Robert Bellah would call “civil religion.” Such narrative would help normalize cooperation,…— Regina Harsanyi (@ReginaHarsanyi) November 8, 2025

Governable Spaces: Democratic Design for Online Life – Writings and rehearsals by Nathan Schneider

Read the free, open access editionBuy: Amazon, Bookshop, Narrow Gauge Book Co-op, UC Press

“Are Protocols Elite?” in Rythms – Writings and rehearsals by Nathan Schneider

For a taste of what I’ve been working on this season, I have a new, tiny-little essay in the in-house journal of our Center for Media, Religion, and Culture, Rhythms: “Are Protocols Elite?” Based on a collab with Avery Edenfield. https://www.colorado.edu/cmrc/2025/11/06/rhythms-fall-2025-counter-media

Concentric Groups, Knowledge Bridges and Epistemic Communities

vs Elitism, Celebrity and Oligarchy This article is part of a series: ‘Stigmergy: Systems of Mass Collaboration’. Note: Concentric circles relate to sound amplification – the voic…

CFP: Religion, Politics, and Cognitive Warfare | The Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory | JCRT

This call for papers invites work on religion, politics, and cognitive warfare, exploring how belief, media, conspiracy, identity, and power shape struggles over reality, interpretation, and life in an age of disinformat

⁂ community, collaboration, co-existence | Are.na

for building a collective future

Toward a durable writing stack – Writings and rehearsals by Nathan Schneider

I have benefited over the years from others who have documented their writing setups, and so I feel some obligation to pay the favor forward by doing so with my own. The stack I’ll describe here is one I’ve been iterating on for about twenty years, starting from when I began discovering the pleasures of plain-text writing. Every aspect of it has changed over that period, but the some basic goals and flows have been with me through the writing of my college thesis, five books, and hundreds of articles. I am quite happy with where I am, and others might benefit from what I’ve come up with.

Restorative Justice in the Bible | The Paper Pilot

The Paper Pilot's digital garden of thoughts on philosophy, politics, and sociology

Smart Coop

Smart: a way to bring meaning and solidarity to work.

The Techno-Religion at the Center of the A.I. Debate

Podcast Episode · The Daily · September 18 · Subscribers Only · 34m