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 introduction compiled by Michel Bauwens which used to be here as the category page is now at Commons - Introduction

The Wikipedia entry gives the origin as "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."

Key Concepts

• "The Tragedy of the Commons" is a famous paper by Garrett Hardin, which was taken to dismiss the feasibility of a commons. But as the author later admitted, (e.g. [1]) the tragedy properly relates to "unmanaged" 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, and leads to the idea of the Sharing Economy. However, sometimes things can appear to be shared while the what really matters is not shared.

Useful Learning Resources

Introductory

• CommonsTransition and P2P: A Primer