Category:Commons

The Commons is a central concept relating to very many other topics in this Wiki.

Michel Bauwens states the P2P position thus: "A commons is

1. shared resources (i.e. there is something objective about it)
2. maintained or co-produced by a community or group of stakeholders (hence: a subjective activity and choice, 'there is no commons without commoning') and
3. it is managed according to the rules and values of that community ('autonormativity'), which makes it also an alternative governance and property regime."

(from the Commons page on this Wiki)

The Wikipedia entry gives the origin of the term thus: "the Roman legal category res communis, applied to things common to all to be used and enjoyed by everyone, as opposed to res publica, applied to public property managed by the government."

The introduction compiled by Michel Bauwens which used to be here as the category page is now at Introduction to the P2P Foundation Wiki Material about the Commons

Key Ideas

• "The Tragedy of the Commons" is a famous paper by Garrett Hardin, which was sometimes taken as dismissing the feasibility of commons in general. But as the author later admitted, (e.g. [1]) the "tragedy" properly relates to "unmanaged" commons, not to all commons.
• Elinor Ostrom is widely cited and quoted as a key author in the field. She researched and documented several examples of commons that are effectively managed.
• See our page on Enclosure to understand the meaning and significance of enclosure in opposing the Commons.
• Enclosure is in many ways the opposite to sharing: thus relating the Commons to the Sharing Economy. However, sometimes things can appear to be shared while the what really matters is not shared.
• Commons-Based Peer Production points to a strategy for economic activity based on the commons.

Useful Learning Resources

Introductory

• Our page on Commons

Deeper Study

• Commons Transition and P2P: A Primer (2017) by Michel Bauwens et al. starts with some helpful basic explanation, and continues to around 50 pages of explaining related concepts including the politics of the commons, and Commons Transition.

Related Categories

• Category: Sharing
• Category: Collaborative Economy
• Category: Peerproduction