Four Fundamental Categories of Commons That Create True Value

Discussion

S.A. Hamed and Barry K. Gils:

"Following an Aristotelian fourfold model of causality (i.e., the efficient, material, formal, and final causes), we consider four irreducible categories as the ‘fundamental commons’ that (only when) together cause true value:

(1) Creativity as the ‘efficient’ commoning cause of true value, comprising (more than) humans’ creative capacities to conscientiously achieve and sustain selffulfilling levels of collective living in balanced coexistence with the (rest of the) life-domain;

(2) Liveability as the ‘material’ commoning cause, consisting of the material and immaterial substances, components and inputs necessary for producing true value. These sources evolve naturally through self-sustaining, restorative, and regenerative practices under shared stewardship and collective decision-making across socio-ecological networks of communal life;

(3) Conviviality as the ‘formal’ commoning cause entailing deep interdependence among (more than) human populations, pluriversality of their modes of living and caring, and their communal solidarity inclusive of non-humans, or in other words, the convivial modes of ‘living well together’ (well-living, buen vivir) through (and despite) frictions, tension, disputes, and diversities; and finally;

(4) Alterity as the ‘final’ commoning cause of true value, such as organized prefigurative practices and subjectivities (imaginative, symbolic, proactivist) essential for transcending the dominant hierarchical structures and for actualizing rightful ideals, moralities, dreams, more-than-human liberation, purposeful ‘well-living,’ and a ‘free life.’ "

(https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/290382/1/9781003805588.pdf)