RE: Hit the road Jack, or how Im hitchhiking between Tunka valley & Ulan-Ude. (Lots of photos!)
Anyhow, I've just done some comparative reading on the topic, and apparently whatever term we use we are talking about the system where people cooperate as fully concious actors to produce cool shit that, will improve their life and go towards post-scarcity society. That was the goal that the Marx outlined in his works. It is also opposed to the current corporate capitalist society. Which is a great thing, no mater how it is called!
I mean, even such a loaded term as collectivism has two meanings/styles: horizontal which is all about decentralization and considers all actors to be equal and peruse their own and collective interest. And vertical collectivism which is all about authoritarian centralized models, and assumes that some people are better than others. :-/
Ok, I can agree with this model you describe. Horizontal collectivism. I call that 'anarchocapitalism'. But having said that, it really comes into its own with distributed networks, which flatten the communication network.
Really, none of this convergence would have been possible without the internet. You give me hope that both sides of the 'horizontal collectivism' picture can find a common ground and then start to work together.
and yes! economists are supposed to be about refining the understanding of the methodologies how to minimise scarcity. That's why they are called 'economist' right?