Common

Definition

Peter Linebaugh:

“Common has an extraordinary range of meaning in English, and several of its particular meanings are inseparable from a still active social history,” says the 20th century critic, Raymond Williams.3 The root word is “communis, Latin, derived alternatively, from com-, Latin – together and manis, Latin – under obligation, and from com- and unus, Latin – one.” It thus points to either “a specific group or to the generality of mankind.” (http://www.commoner.org.uk/?p=98)

Source: Semantical-Historical Paths of Communism and Commons

Discussion

More and more the concept of the common seems to become a third term, alongside the private and the collective.

The common consists of a series of inalienable rights that are hold by all individuals, rather than collective aspects governed by a separate sovereign body, and different from the individualized/privatized aspects of existence.

The difference is explained in our entry on Common Rights, from an article by Dan Sullivan.

It translates into new forms of Common Property that has it own rules and theory, applying to Common Goods and Common Pool Resources, sometimes governed by specialized Common Good Licenses such as the General Public License for software.

The concept of the common is therefore essential for building a society based on the Common Good, and is the key to understand Peer Production and how it socially reproduces itself through a process of Circulation of the Common

Common proprerty forms for physical goods that can be governed through Commons-based approaches can take the form of Trusts