NORA Commons Resource Model

Description

Wolfgang Hoeschele:

"Needs, Organizational forms, Resources for Abundance) - that is, for any need and for any resource that needs to be managed, one will be able to find out about appropriate organizational forms for fulfilling that need or managing that resource."

NORA is a component of the Commons Abundance Network, which is currently in development.

Proposed ontology and structure

Draft version. NORA is in its very early stages of development, regarding its ontology, structure, and content. Contributions are needed, and welcome!

Needs

All Living Organisms These are needs that we must take care to meet not only for humans, but also for animals and plants (i.e., to make sure that animals and plants have the habitats they need where there is clean air and water, where food sources are there, and from which they can reach other habitats if needed, as in seasonal migrations).

• Clean air to breathe
• Clean water to drink, for cleanliness, for cooking and as habitat
• Sufficient and nutritious food, appropriate to one’s cultural preferences and taste
• Being at home in the place where one lives
• Mobility to reach the places one needs to go, with appropriate modes of transportation

Humans These are either strictly human needs, or needs that we share with animals and plants but that are typically provided for if their needs for habitat are satisfied.

• Security from bodily, emotional, and mental harm; this includes security when one cannot take

care of oneself (e.g., in infancy and childhood, in old age, or due to illness or disability)

• Clothing appropriate to one’s cultural and individual preferences, and the climate
• Shelter/housing appropriate to one’s cultural and individual preferences, and the climate
• Physical and mental health, and access to appropriate care in the case of illness or disability
• Supportive relationships with other people, relationships that empower, that contribute to a

gain in personal energy rather than an energy drain

• Opportunities to learn anything and everything relevant to one's life
• Meaningful livelihoods that allow people to meet their other needs
• Participation in collective economic and political decision-making
• Having enough time to relax, to think, to imagine, to enjoy life, to play, to be alone
• Spiritual connection with one’s deeper self and with a transcendent unity
• A freely chosen life direction

Resources

Air and Atmosphere

• air quality near the Earth’s surface
• air quality affecting the ozone layer
• gaseous composition of the atmosphere, including greenhouse gases

Water

• fresh water (surface, groundwater)
• brackish and estuarine water
• marine water
• ice (glaciers, ice caps, permafrost)

Land

• land for agriculture and forestry (annual crops, horticulture, gardens, orchards, grazing and range land, forest plantations, freshwater aquaculture etc.)
• land for nature preservation
• land used for mining
• land used for industrial manufacturing and energy generation
• urban (residential and commercial) land
• land used for waste disposal

Energy

• fossil fuels
• solar (photovoltaic, solar thermal, building design)
• wind energy (used for wind power, sailing ships)
• energy from water (rivers, tides, ocean currents)
• geothermal energy
• energy from biological sources (wood and other fuels, organic waste)
• animal power
• human power (e.g., cycling, seesaws to power water pumps)

Minerals

• iron and other ferrous metals
• non-ferrous metals
• rare earths
• common rocks and gravel (e.g., granite, marble, slate)
• clay
• gems

Living things (plants, animals, fungi, micro-organisms)

• crop plants (genetic diversity and resilience)
• domesticated animals (genetic diversity and resilience)
• plant species (as well as larger taxonomic groups or vegetation types)
• animal species (as well as larger taxonomic groups)
• habitats and ecosystems

Physical, human-made assets

• buildings and the spaces around them
• transportation infrastructure
• communications and information infrastructure
• the built structures of cities and towns
• vehicles and transport equipment
• furniture and household appliances
• industrial equipment and machinery
• repositories of knowledge (libraries)
• works of art, craft, cultural artifacts etc.

Intangibles

• information
• knowledge
• trust
• love
• spirituality

Organizational Forms

In order to use resources to meet needs (in whichever way those may be defined), a host of organizational forms are required. In an economy that uses commons approaches to meet the needs of humans and other life forms on this planet while using resources sustainably, existing organizational forms may be used, modified, or discarded, while other new forms are created. The main headings of organizational forms below refer to forms that may be organized both in hierarchical and unsustainable ways, or as commons where all relevant stakeholders can participate in decision-making and share in the benefits and responsibilities of using resources sustainably. Although each major heading includes a huge diversity of economic activities, the relationships among resources, producers, users/customers/members, and beneficiaries are somewhat similar within each category. The links of the main headings will lead to analyses of who the relevant stakeholders are, which of them are empowered or disempowered by currently dominant versions of those organizational forms (i.e., how abundance and scarcity are distributed), and links to further pages on commons-based organizational forms within the category.

Self-provisioning by individuals or households

Breathing the air, drinking water from an openly accessible source, growing one's own food, cooking and other work in the household, parenting, taking care of elderly or ill people in the household, DIY, household-level renewable energy systems, building one's own shelter, fab-labs, etc.

Community solidarity: mutual aid within a community

People helping each other because of a shared identity, with the expectation that one who needs help now may be able to offer help at some other time, and vice versa; conformity to social conventions or an honor code may also be expected. Shared identity can be on the basis of neighborhood, kinship, ethnic or geographic origin, class status, occupational group, a Mafia membership, religion, ideology, membership in an intentional community, among many others. Sometimes, solidarity may be extended on the basis of shared humanity (as in the good Samaritan story), or even on the basis of being a living thing (as in humans helping animals, or a dolphin helping a human).

Natural resource management

Ownership/control of land, nonrenewable resources, fisheries, wildlife, timber, the atmosphere, the oceans, the ocean bed, Antarctica, outer space.

Property forms include common property, no-one's property, government property, or private property.

Production of and distribution of goods or services for many-to-many exchange, with no continuing commitments

Family farms, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), township and village enterprises (TVEs) in China, agricultural plantations, mining, factories, retailing and wholesaling, publishing companies, restaurants, theaters, cinemas, legal services, some private medical practice, some consulting, airlines where there is competition between carriers.

Ownership may be by self-employed people, private owners, corporations, worker cooperatives, the state (state-owned enterprises); organizations may be for profit or not-for-profit.

Production of goods or services for a defined service area or community that typically involves a continuing relationship between the service provider and customers/users/members over one or more years (one-to-many, continuous exchange)

Water, sewage, electric, telephone, cable etc. utilities, public transport, road networks, ports and airports, telecommunications infrastructure, airlines where there is little or no competition between carriers, public parks, banking, insurance, many financial services, educational institutions, hospitals, long-term medical care, retirement homes, social services, retirement benefits, religious institutions, media by subscription, some consulting, coaching, legislation, the courts, arbitration and dispute settlement, government administration and taxation, the military, security services, large parts of the military industry, large aircraft production, production of industrial facilities and transport infrastructure, professional and business associations, chambers of commerce, unions, online social networks, community supported agriculture, community development institutions, principled societies, corporate or government (e.g., military) research which is not to be shared with a wider community.

Such services can be in the ownership/control of private businesses, the state, workers, the people whose needs are supposed to be met (clients, customers, users, members, citizens, patients, students) or some combination of the above.

Sharing, renting or leasing of assets without transfer of property title

Rental/leasing of land, houses, apartments, cars and other goods, car sharing (as a business or P2P), informal or formal sharing of household goods, sharing of assets among businesses or other organizations, libraries (of books, artworks, tools, etc.). This differs from service provision in categories listed above in that the user has control over the thing being used for the duration of the rental contract.

Both owner and renter/user can be an individual or any type of organization or group.

Production of knowledge- or information-based services on behalf of a vaguely defined community of beneficiaries, most of whom can potentially benefit from those services freely

Advocacy non-profits, think tanks, public research institutions, open-source software production, information placed on the Internet, an increasing share of publishing. The information or knowledge produced becomes part of the public domain or commons, while the producers may be organized in a wide variety of forms, including dispersed networks (not usually possible for most other categories of production).

Currencies (means of exchange, which may have other functions as well)

Government/central bank-issued currencies, complementary/alternative/parallel currencies, scrip, coupons, LETS, time banks. The currency circulates through the hands of many people and organizations, but a large part of the control or influence remains with the organization that issues the currency and create the rules by which it circulates.