Page - (000052) - in Knowledge and Networks

42 networks. The imperative for the provision of continuous, living-wage work across ephemeral networks derives from a fundamental concern for problems of under- consumption among increasingly large numbers of people worldwide, as well as the ills of the credit economy, in turn related to insuffi cient or no wages (Lazzarato, 2011/ 2012 ). The agenda to construct collaborative networks of people, not fi rms, connects with an innovation of open networks associated with open innovation: crowdsourcing. Although crowdsourcing often is exploitative (Howe, 2008 ; Korkki, 2014 ), I suggest treating it as a tool to achieve social objectives by creating a time and space for diverse people to realize their talents while being paid a living wage, and in the process develop meaningful knowledges about each other using multiple modes of communication in the course of sharing economic knowledges in tempo- rary, collaborative networks that respond to customized demand for expertise in the context of open innovation. Municipal governments might well consider it desirable to develop localized networks that are inclusive to avoid local socioeconomic and political tensions wrought of exclusionary processes. The multidimensionality of the agenda devel- oped in this chapter suggests that it may be prudent to spatially fi x it initially at the local scale to permit localized fi eld research for the identifi cation and establishment of knowledge networks in connection with the intricate dynamics of classifying problems relative to requisite sets of expertise. This sort of project need not, how- ever, remain spatially bounded. Considering the long-run possibility of such proj- ects worldwide, local mediators (supported by government at different scales) could work to ensure continual employment via local projects while connecting with other projects in other places; the local versus extra-local issue can, but need not, be a zero-sum game with appropriate goals, planning, and local participation. The evolu- tion of the Mondragon Cooperative Corporation from localized to globally exten- sive is a case in point, although as J. K. Gibson-Graham ( 2006 , p. 123) has pointed out, it is unclear whether democratic practices and the privileging of social objec- tives extend to offshore operations. Indeed, a transfer of social relations across space is anything but perfunctory and hardly a seamless operation; for this reason, beginning mediated crowdsourced project work at the metropolitan scale is pragmatic. One central problem is recruitment. Recall Cisco’s open electronic call for exper- tise and the considerable response across the world— 2500 inventors across 104 countries. While many of those responding may well be without stable employment despite their skills, they nonetheless are “plugged in” to a global network, even if exploitative. In addition to all those who did not win Cisco’s one-time prize, con- sider also the large numbers of people who remain unplugged from opportunities— as previously explained, a defi ning feature of segregation. People in untapped labor markets live in resource-poor areas that lack access to lucrative information, in part due to the absence of material and immaterial resources as well as institutionalized discrimination. Extending knowledge networks to untapped labor markets, including people who are talented but lack formal work and educational experience, requires fi eld research as a crucial complement to electronic communication to engage the N. Ettlinger