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'''Commons''': shared, long-term, non-market interests<br>
'''Commons''': shared, long-term, non-market interests<br>
'''Markets''': individual consumers, short-term market relationships.
'''Markets''': individual consumers, short-term market relationships.
== How can I take part in the Commons Transition? ==
How can I take part in the Commons Transition? in [https://primer.commonstransition.org/1-short-articles/1-8-how-can-i-take-part-in-the-commons-transition primer.commonstransition.org]
== Resources ==
=== Quotes ===
"The economy needn't be a war, it can be a commons. … The commons is a conscious implementation of reciprocal altruism. Reciprocal altruists, whether human or ape, reward those who cooperate with others and punish those who defect. A commons works the same way. A resource such as a lake or a field, or a monetary system, is understood as a shared asset. The pastures of medieval England were treated as a commons. It wasn't a free-for-all, but a carefully negotiated and enforced system. People brought their flocks to graze in mutually agreed-upon schedules. Violation of the rules was punished, either with penalties or exclusion."
Douglas Rushkoff's book "Team Human" [https://www.shareable.net/blog/5-shareable-excerpts-from-douglas-rushkoff-new-book-team-human Shareable]
=== Video ===
A Possible [[Philadelphia]] on [https://vimeo.com/130214100 Vimeo]


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== News and comment ==
== News and comment ==
'''2018'''
[[File:Siena z01.JPG|240px|left]]
[[Italy]]: What Italian cities can teach us about how to establish urban commons - and their value, Nov 19 <ref>[https://www.thealternative.org.uk/dailyalternative/2018/11/22/urban-commons-italian-lessons The Altternative UK]</ref><br clear=all>
[[File:Greywolf1.jpg|140px|left]]
[[Europe]]: Shared Spaces: New Paper on Urban Commons, Nov 16 <ref>[http://www.commonsnetwork.org/news/shared-spaces-new-paper-on-urban-commons/ Commons Network]</ref><br clear=all>
Strengthening and protecting what matters most by @CassieRobinson, Nov 2 <ref>[https://medium.com/@cassierobinson/strengthening-and-protecting-what-matters-most-c0c7bc53f4db Medium]</ref>
Creating the everyday commons: The need to consider space in sharing initiatives, Nov 1 <ref>[https://www.shareable.net/blog/creating-the-everyday-commons-the-need-to-consider-space-in-sharing-initiatives Shareable]</ref>
[[File:Tramway de barcelone 1.jpg|140px|left]]
City of [[Barcelona]] Kicks Out Microsoft in Favor of Linux and Open Source, Jan 12 <ref>[https://itsfoss.com/barcelona-open-source/ itsfoss.com]</ref><br clear=left>


'''2017'''
'''2017'''
[[File:Ghent April 2012-2.jpg|140px|left]]
[[Ghent]]: The City Taking the Commons to Heart, Nov 25 <ref>[https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/the-city-taking-the-commons-to-heart/ @GreenEUJournal]</ref>
9 Awesome Urban Commons Projects in [[Ghent]], Aug 17 <ref>[https://www.shareable.net/blog/9-awesome-urban-commons-projects-in-ghent @Shareable]</ref>
[[Ghent]]'s Quick Rise as a Sustainable, Commons-Based Sharing City, Aug 9 <ref>[https://www.shareable.net/blog/ghents-quick-rise-as-a-sustainable-commons-based-sharing-city Shareable]</ref><br clear=left>
[[File:Farming near Klingerstown, Pennsylvania.jpg|140px|left]]
[[Pennsylvania]]: Civic Commons: Spreading opportunity to the whole city, Jul 10 <ref>[https://www.cnu.org/publicsquare/2017/07/10/civic-commons-spreading-opportunity-whole-city cnu.org]</ref><br clear=left>
[[File:AlleeImFruehling.jpg|140px|left]]
[[Citizens data initiative]]: Sharing Cities: Using Urban Data to Reclaim Public Space as a Commons, Jun 5 <ref>[http://www.shareable.net/blog/sharing-cities-using-urban-data-to-reclaim-public-space-as-a-commons @Shareable]</ref><br clear=left>
Can Commons Thinking Break into the European Mainstream? Jun 2 <ref>[http://www.bollier.org/blog/can-commons-thinking-break-european-mainstream bollier.org]</ref>
Five Practical Guidelines for Achieving a Commons Transition, May 17 <ref>[https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/five-practical-guidelines-achieving-commons-transition/2017/05/17 blog.p2pfoundation.net]</ref>
:"The Commons is neither the resource, the community that gathers around it, nor the protocols for its stewardship, but the dynamic interaction between all these elements. An example is Wikipedia." As is Community action for sustainability / CASwiki
:"Pool resources wherever possible: Pooling — or in other words “the commons” — should be at the heart of the productive and societal system."
[[File:Farmers' market, Stroud.jpg|140px|left]]
[[Food news]]: Patterns of Commoning: Farm Hack: A Commons for Agricultural Innovation, May 15 <ref>[https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/patterns-commoning-farm-hack-commons-agricultural-innovation/2017/05/15 blog.p2pfoundation.net]</ref><br clear=left>
Commons Governance as a Means and an End, May 15 <ref>[http://www.shareable.net/blog/commons-governance-as-a-means-and-an-end @Shareable]</ref> ''see also'': [[South_Korea#Commons|South Korea]], [[California#Commons|California]], [[Massachusetts#Commons|Massachusetts]]
Creative Commons' New Strategy for a Collaborative Organizational Structure, May 10 <ref>[http://www.shareable.net/blog/creative-commons-new-strategy-for-a-collaborative-organizational-structure Shareable]</ref>
{{#widget:YouTube|id=zHQVUtz0XMY}}
Commons Transition and P2P: a Primer, May 9 <ref>[http://commonstransition.org/commons-transition-p2p-primer/ @Commons Trans]</ref>
Cities as a commons: Sharing vision, resources and power - Cities for People, May 4 <ref>[http://citiesforpeople.ca/en/blogroll/cities-as-a-commons-sharing-vision-resources-and-power citiesforpeople.ca]</ref>
[[File:Berlin-Kreuzberg Prinzessinnengärten 1.jpg|140px|left]]
[[Berlin]]: The Urban Common Spaces That Show Us We Belong to Something Larger, May 3 <ref>[http://www.shareable.net/blog/the-urban-common-spaces-that-show-us-we-belong-to-something-larger Shareable]</ref><br clear=left>
Nine Key Political Propositions for Building the Commons, May 5 <ref>[http://commonstransition.org/nine-key-political-propositions-for-building-the-commons/ commonstransition.org]</ref>
Excerpt from Creative Commons' Upcoming Book — 'Made with Creative Commons', May 1 <ref>[http://www.shareable.net/blog/read-an-excerpt-from-creative-commons-upcoming-book-%E2%80%94-made-with-creative-commons @Shareable]</ref>
Our biggest report yet: State of the Commons 2016, Apr 28 <ref>[https://creativecommons.org/2017/04/28/state-of-the-commons-2016/ creativecommons.org]</ref>
[[File:France1.jpg|140px|left]]
Point d’étape Chambre des Communs de Lille, Apr 15 <ref>[http://forum.lescommuns.org/t/point-detape-chambre-des-communs-de-lille/231 forum.lescommuns.org]</ref><br clear=left>


The Future of the Commons is an Open Planet, Laura Hilliger, Apr 7 <ref>[https://creativecommons.org/2017/04/07/future-of-commons/ creativecommons.org]</ref>
The Future of the Commons is an Open Planet, Laura Hilliger, Apr 7 <ref>[https://creativecommons.org/2017/04/07/future-of-commons/ creativecommons.org]</ref>
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[[Italy]]: The Nidiaci Garden of Florence, an Oasis of Commoning in a Busy City, Mar 28 <ref>[http://bollier.org/blog/nidiaci-garden-florence-oasis-commoning-busy-city bollier.org]</ref><br clear=left>
[[Italy]]: The Nidiaci Garden of Florence, an Oasis of Commoning in a Busy City, Mar 28 <ref>[http://bollier.org/blog/nidiaci-garden-florence-oasis-commoning-busy-city bollier.org]</ref><br clear=left>


[[File:AlleeImFruehling.jpg|140px|left]]
[[File:Greece1.jpg|140px|left]]
[[Greece]]: The Greek Left Takes Stock of the Commons, Mar 1 <ref>[http://bollier.org/blog/greek-left-takes-stock-commons bollier.org]</ref><br clear=left>
[[Greece]]: The Greek Left Takes Stock of the Commons, Mar 1 <ref>[http://bollier.org/blog/greek-left-takes-stock-commons bollier.org]</ref><br clear=left>


Dispatches from the Commons Assembly, Feb 1 <ref>[https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/dispatches-from-the-commons-assembly/2017/02/01 blog.p2pfoundation.net]</ref>
Dispatches from the Commons Assembly, Feb 1 <ref>[https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/dispatches-from-the-commons-assembly/2017/02/01 blog.p2pfoundation.net]</ref>
What the P2P Foundation did in 2016, Jan 18 <ref>[http://commonstransition.org/what-the-p2p-foundation-did-in-2016/ @Commons_Trans]</ref>


How Can We Redesign Cities as Shared Spaces? Jan 9 <ref>[http://www.shareable.net/blog/how-can-we-redesign-cities-as-shared-spaces @Shareable]</ref>  
How Can We Redesign Cities as Shared Spaces? Jan 9 <ref>[http://www.shareable.net/blog/how-can-we-redesign-cities-as-shared-spaces @Shareable]</ref>  
What is the Commons Transition? Jan 6 <ref>[http://www.resilience.org/stories/2017-01-06/what-is-the-commons-transition/ resilience.org]</ref>


'''2016'''
'''2016'''
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[[File:Ljubljanica 01.jpg|140px|left]]
[[File:Ljubljanica 01.jpg|140px|left]]
[[Slovenia]] adds water to constitution as fundamental right for all, Nov 18 <ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/nov/18/slovenia-adds-water-to-constitution-as-fundamental-right-for-all The Guardian]</ref><br clear=left>
[[Slovenia]] adds water to constitution as fundamental right for all, Nov 18 <ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/nov/18/slovenia-adds-water-to-constitution-as-fundamental-right-for-all The Guardian]</ref><br clear=left>
10 Ways to Accelerate the Peer-to-Peer and Commons Economy, Aug 1 <ref>[http://www.shareable.net/blog/10-ways-to-accelerate-the-peer-to-peer-and-commons-economy Shareable]</ref>


The Sustainability Commons: Using Open Source Design to Address Climate Change, Jun 8 <ref>[http://www.shareable.net/blog/the-sustainability-commons-using-open-source-design-to-address-climate-change Shareable]</ref>
The Sustainability Commons: Using Open Source Design to Address Climate Change, Jun 8 <ref>[http://www.shareable.net/blog/the-sustainability-commons-using-open-source-design-to-address-climate-change Shareable]</ref>
The Commons Collaborative Economy explodes in Barcelona, Apr 18 <ref>[http://commonstransition.org/commons-collaborative-economy-explodes-barcelona/ @Commons_Trans]</ref>


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{{#widget:Vimeo|id=151666798}}
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== See also ==
== See also ==
 
* [[Community resources]]
* [[Community land trust]]
* [[Community currencies activism]]
* [[Community currencies activism]]
* [[Food activism]]
* [[Food activism]]
* [[Sharing]]
* [[Sharing]]
* [[:category:Commons|Commons]] (category)
* [[Towards sustainable economies]]
* [[Ingredients of a successful commons]]
* [[Ingredients of a successful commons]]
{{topic header| default.png |Commons}}


== Interwiki links ==
== Interwiki links ==

Revision as of 16:32, 25 January 2019

Ballard Farmers' Market - vegetables.jpg
Commons are often associated with natural resources like the oceans and forests — areas that belong to everyone. But commons are not just resources. They are not simply Wikipedia pages or the city grounds used for urban gardening. They comprise of a resource, a community, and a set of social protocols. The three are an integrated, interdependent whole.

What communities can do

  • help build the digital commons, for example share information and knowledge on CASwiki and Appropedia

What are the commons?

Commons should be understood as a dynamic, living social system — any resource that can be used by many could inspire people to organize as a commons. The key questions are whether a particular community is motivated to manage a resource as a commons, and if it can come up with the rules, norms, and sanctions to make the system work.

Is there a clear example of a commons-based business?

The internet provider Guifi.net in Catalonia shows how commons can create a new paradigm of organizing and producing. This bottom-up, citizen-driven project has created a free, open, and neutral telecommunications network based on a commons model. This is how it works: People put Wi-Fi nodes on their rooftops, which is extended and strengthened each time a new user adds a node to the network. Currently, Guifi.net's broadband network has more than 30,000 active nodes and provides internet access to more than 50,000 people. The project started in 2004 when residents of a rural area weren't able to get broadband internet access due to a lack of private operators. The network grew quickly over the whole region, while the Guifi.net Foundation developed governance rules that define the terms and conditions for all users of the network.

Guifi.net supernode installation 2.jpg
Installation of a "supernode" of Guifi.net's network in the neighbourhood of Sant Pere i Sant Pau in Tarragona. Photo by Lluis tgn via Wikimedia Commons

The example shows that in creating any commons, it is critical that the community decides that it wants to engage in the social practices of managing a resource for everyone's benefit. In this sense "there is no commons without commoning." This underscores that commons is not only about shared resources — it is mostly about the social practices and values that we devise to manage them.

In what areas are commons active?

Examples of commons can be found today in different areas:

  1. Local food sovereignty - see also: Food activism
  2. City commons - see also: Sharing cities
  3. Alternative currencies - see also: Community currencies activism
  4. Web-hosting infrastructure for commons
  5. Creative Commons license
  6. Open-source software
  7. Open-source design/cosmo-local production
  8. Academic research/open education resources

It is interesting to consider the improbable types of common-pool resources that can be governed as commons. Surfers in Hawaii, catching the big waves at Pipeline Beach have organized themselves in a collective to manage how people use a scarce resource: the massive waves. In this sense, they can be considered a commons: they have developed a shared understanding about the allocation of scarce use of rights.

Is commons a new idea or are there examples from the past?

From a historical perspective, commons were an essential part of the economical and social system of rural societies before modernization took place. People in rural areas depended upon open access to the commons (forests, fields, meadows), using economic principles of reciprocity and redistribution. When common grounds were enclosed and privatized, many migrated to cities, becoming employees in factories and individual consumers, and lost the common identity and ability of self-governance. The modern liberal state separated production (companies) from governance (politics), while in the commons system these were an inseparable entity. In industrial capitalist societies, the market with its price mechanism became the new central organizing principle of society.

How do privatization and enclosure affect the commons?

Nowadays massive land grabs are going on in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Investors and national governments are snapping up land that people have used for generations. All over the world, all aspects of life are being monetized with the expansion of private property rights: water, seeds, biodiversity, the human genome, public infrastructures, public spaces in cities, culture, and knowledge.

What is the importance of digital commons?

The internet has been an arena for experimentation and innovation, precisely because there is no legacy of conventional institutions to displace. Entire new modes of creative production have arisen on the internet that are neither market-based nor state-controlled. Open-source software, Wikipedia, and Creative Commons licenses have emerged as a new way of production that is nonproprietary and based on the collaboration of widely distributed, loosely connected individuals who cooperate with each other.

Prior to the rise of the web, commons were usually regarded as little more than a curiosity of medieval history or a backwater of social science research. Now that so many people have tasted freedom, innovation, and accountability of open networks and digital commons, there is no going back to the command-and-control business model of the 20th century. The full disruptive potential of this profound global cultural revolution is still ahead.

What role can commons play in the actual economic and institutional crises?

The commons offers a powerful way to re-conceptualize governments, economics, and global policies at a time when the existing order is incapable of reforming itself. The most urgent task is to expand the conversation about the commons and to ground it in actual practice. The more that people have personal, lived experiences with commoning of any sort, the greater the public understanding will be. In a quiet and evident way, the commons can disclose more and more spaces in our everyday life in which we can create, shape, and negotiate our lives.

What are the differences between commons and markets?

Commons: Rely on people's altruism and cooperation
Markets: Believe humans are selfish individuals whose wants are unlimited

Commons: stewardship of resources
Markets: ownership of resources

Commons: individuals and collectives mutually reinforce each other
Markets: separation of individual and collectives

Commons: shared, long-term, non-market interests
Markets: individual consumers, short-term market relationships.

How can I take part in the Commons Transition?

How can I take part in the Commons Transition? in primer.commonstransition.org

Resources

Quotes

"The economy needn't be a war, it can be a commons. … The commons is a conscious implementation of reciprocal altruism. Reciprocal altruists, whether human or ape, reward those who cooperate with others and punish those who defect. A commons works the same way. A resource such as a lake or a field, or a monetary system, is understood as a shared asset. The pastures of medieval England were treated as a commons. It wasn't a free-for-all, but a carefully negotiated and enforced system. People brought their flocks to graze in mutually agreed-upon schedules. Violation of the rules was punished, either with penalties or exclusion."

Douglas Rushkoff's book "Team Human" Shareable

Video

A Possible Philadelphia on Vimeo

News and comment

2018

Siena z01.JPG

Italy: What Italian cities can teach us about how to establish urban commons - and their value, Nov 19 [1]

Greywolf1.jpg

Europe: Shared Spaces: New Paper on Urban Commons, Nov 16 [2]

Strengthening and protecting what matters most by @CassieRobinson, Nov 2 [3]

Creating the everyday commons: The need to consider space in sharing initiatives, Nov 1 [4]

Tramway de barcelone 1.jpg

City of Barcelona Kicks Out Microsoft in Favor of Linux and Open Source, Jan 12 [5]

2017

Ghent April 2012-2.jpg

Ghent: The City Taking the Commons to Heart, Nov 25 [6]

9 Awesome Urban Commons Projects in Ghent, Aug 17 [7]

Ghent's Quick Rise as a Sustainable, Commons-Based Sharing City, Aug 9 [8]

Farming near Klingerstown, Pennsylvania.jpg

Pennsylvania: Civic Commons: Spreading opportunity to the whole city, Jul 10 [9]

AlleeImFruehling.jpg

Citizens data initiative: Sharing Cities: Using Urban Data to Reclaim Public Space as a Commons, Jun 5 [10]

Can Commons Thinking Break into the European Mainstream? Jun 2 [11]

Five Practical Guidelines for Achieving a Commons Transition, May 17 [12]

"The Commons is neither the resource, the community that gathers around it, nor the protocols for its stewardship, but the dynamic interaction between all these elements. An example is Wikipedia." As is Community action for sustainability / CASwiki
"Pool resources wherever possible: Pooling — or in other words “the commons” — should be at the heart of the productive and societal system."
Farmers' market, Stroud.jpg

Food news: Patterns of Commoning: Farm Hack: A Commons for Agricultural Innovation, May 15 [13]

Commons Governance as a Means and an End, May 15 [14] see also: South Korea, California, Massachusetts

Creative Commons' New Strategy for a Collaborative Organizational Structure, May 10 [15]

Error in widget YouTube: Unable to load template 'wiki:YouTube'

Commons Transition and P2P: a Primer, May 9 [16]

Cities as a commons: Sharing vision, resources and power - Cities for People, May 4 [17]

Berlin-Kreuzberg Prinzessinnengärten 1.jpg

Berlin: The Urban Common Spaces That Show Us We Belong to Something Larger, May 3 [18]

Nine Key Political Propositions for Building the Commons, May 5 [19]

Excerpt from Creative Commons' Upcoming Book — 'Made with Creative Commons', May 1 [20]

Our biggest report yet: State of the Commons 2016, Apr 28 [21]

France1.jpg

Point d’étape Chambre des Communs de Lille, Apr 15 [22]

The Future of the Commons is an Open Planet, Laura Hilliger, Apr 7 [23]

Siena z01.JPG

Italy: The Nidiaci Garden of Florence, an Oasis of Commoning in a Busy City, Mar 28 [24]

Greece1.jpg

Greece: The Greek Left Takes Stock of the Commons, Mar 1 [25]

Dispatches from the Commons Assembly, Feb 1 [26]

What the P2P Foundation did in 2016, Jan 18 [27]

How Can We Redesign Cities as Shared Spaces? Jan 9 [28]

What is the Commons Transition? Jan 6 [29]

2016

Ljubljanica 01.jpg

Slovenia adds water to constitution as fundamental right for all, Nov 18 [30]

10 Ways to Accelerate the Peer-to-Peer and Commons Economy, Aug 1 [31]

The Sustainability Commons: Using Open Source Design to Address Climate Change, Jun 8 [32]

The Commons Collaborative Economy explodes in Barcelona, Apr 18 [33]

Error in widget Vimeo: Unable to load template 'wiki:Vimeo'

Creative Commons' Radical Plan to Bring Joy to the Commons, Mar 23 [34]

2014

Regional Food Commons as a Systemic Answer, March 18 [35]

See also

Interwiki links

Wikipedia: Commons

Commons Transition Wiki, database for policy papers and proposals related to Commons Transition

External links

Bibliography

  • Benkler, Yochai, The Penguin and the Leviathan: The Triumph of Cooperation Over Self-Interest (Crown Business, 2010).
  • Bollier, David, Think Like a Commoner: A Short Introduction to the Life of the Commons. (New Society Publishers, 2014)
  • Bollier, David, and Silke Helfrich, editors, The Wealth of the Commons: A World Beyond Market and State (Levellers Press, 2012).
  • Capra, Fritjof and Mattei, Ugo, The Ecology of Law: Toward a Legal System in Tune with Nature and Community (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2015).
  • Hardt, Michael, and Negri, Antonio, Commonwealth (Harvard University Press, 2011).
  • Sennett, Richard, Together: The Rituals, Pleasures and Politics of Cooperation (Yale University Press, 2012).


References

  • A Shareable Explainer: What are the Commons? Apr 12, 2017, Shareable
This piece was written by Bart Grugeon Plana, a journalist and contributor of the New Economy and Social Innovation Forum (NESI Forum). It is based on the book "Think Like a Commoner: A Short Introduction to the Life of the Commons," by David Bollier.

Header photo of Ballard Sunday Farmers' Market in Seattle, Washington, by Joe Mabel via Wikimedia Commons.


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