Yochai Benkler: The Collaborative Company | McKinsey What Matters

The next 10 to 20 years will be marked by two trends. First, there will be systemization and widespread adoption of social practices that engage millions of people in effective, self-directed, socially motivated production. Second, there will be an increasing sophistication of what I call “social contract enterprises”—companies that have learned how to become trusted platforms for productive social practices. ...

All of this is pointing toward a new social contract. Over the course of modern economic history, markets became evermore separated from social relations; people specialized and segmented their moral outlook. Some actions were fine in the market, even if we would never dream of taking advantage of people in similar ways in social relations. People behave differently when they understand themselves to be acting in the market, as opposed to acting in social relationships. Peer production and other forms of collaboration reverse that by breaking down the barrier between the market self and the social self.