Proposal for a Conference on Commons-Oriented Economics

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Proposal for a Conference on Commons-Oriented Economics


Draft proposal in the context of the Commons Strategies Group


See also: a draft list of Commons-Oriented_Economists


Context

The CSG is a group of commons-advocates consisting of Silke Helfrich, David Bollier, Michel Bauwens and Bea Busaniche, dedicated to promoting the Commons as a societal alternative and seeding new societal conversations about the topic. In the fall of 2011, we co-organized, with and for the Heinrich Boll Foundation, a conference on Commons-oriented policy-making, which brought together representatives from both the digital and the physical commons, which was held in Berlin on October 31-November, 2, 2011. The conference, the first time that digital and physical commoners came together to discuss common policy formulation, was considered very successful by observers, participants, and the co-organizers, and led to the decision to continue similar efforts.

The Calendar

During May 2013, it is proposed to organize the Second International Conference on the Commons, again in Berlin.

This large international conference will be prepared by three continental workshops, in the fall and winter of 2012.


  1. Germany for Europe: in Bechstadt, 3rd week of August
  2. Chiang Mai for South-East Asia, 3rd week of September
  3. Rio de Janeiro for South America, 3rd week of January

The Proposal

The theme to explore and deepen this time will be the economics of the Commons. Indeed it seems clear that both the state-socialist change proposals (1989), and the neoliberal assumptions governing the present economic system, have run out of the steam, with the latter becoming particularly dysfunctional. The present structural dysfuntionalities of social-market-economy and welfare state in times of globalization and the severe threat to the biosphere through climate change and resource depletion make the reformist/ social democrat approaches inoperable and require a more radical restructuring centered around the protection of natural and human resources seen as a commons.

It is therefore imperative to create a dialogue between the economically oriented commons researchers, practitioners and advocates. However, this conference should by no means be restricted to economists only, as the distinction and dominance of the economic framework is part and parcel of the current crisis. Indeed, a commons approach to economy implies a redefinition of what the economy is, what value is, as well as a radical re-discussion about the measures (and the structures of power) which are embedded in the current from of dominant capitalism.


Proposed Major Themes:

  • The Commons Beyond Economics:

Economics defined as the allocation of scarce resources is a problematic category since it assumes a priori scarcity, confuses quantitative and qualitative aspects of human society and has become the dominant lens to see society and its issues. Being critical of economics of or certain trends within economics is not sufficient. Therefore, any focus on commons-oriented 'economics' can only be a transitional approach, not an end point of a human approach.


    • Commons-orientated critiques of capitalism, neo-classical economics, neoliberalism and the current mainstream economic assumptions.
    • The Sufficiency or insuffiency of other heterodox economic assumptions: do they take sufficient account of the commons
    • The Commons in relation to other trans-economic approaches: What other approaches can be used, in addition to the commons, to go beyond the centrality of economics in human life, and to return it to a system of provisioning of sustainable human needs? How does the commons relate to the solidarity economy, buen vivir and other proposals?


  • The commons as a global and local alternative

What commons-oriented alternatives are being proposed to deal with the global crisis in both its global and local aspects?

    • Overview of commons-oriented macro-economic conceptions: how does a commons orientation fits in today's economic approaches , or not, i.e. to what degree is the commons approach compatible with the existing system; what needs to change?
    • The Commons and the non-capitalist economic traditions. The aim of this session is to open up a dialogue with indigenous, traditional and neotraditional conceptions of the economy, especially those which give the commons an important if not central place
    • Solving the biospheric crisis: preserving and protecting the natural commons. The biosphere and its natural resources cannot be considered as one commons amongst the others, but as the key commons for human survival. What commons approaches have been proposed to preserve our planet?
    • Technology and the commons. To what degree is technology a enabler or hindrance of the commons. What kind of technology needs to be developed for a commons-oriented society. What is the linkage between technology and sustainability?


  • Key elements of a commons-based societal infrastructure

A commons oriented society requires that certain enabling infrastructures, and in all likelyhood, a substantial decommodification of substantial aspects of human society, such as labor and finance. In this session, we review key infrastructural areas and how they should be changed and adapted in the context of an evolution towards becoming a commons.


    • Money and Finance as a commons: from local credit commons to transnational monetary reform

Common-stock approaches (capital owned by citizens and workers) to physical production and manufacturing: to what degree can the emergence of global innovation commons based on open content, free software and shared design, be combined with not just open and distributed forms of machinery, but with new forms of distributed, commons-oriented, property and ownership


    • Legal Infrastructures for the Commons

What kind of legal infrastructures do we need to enable and maintain commons?


    • Labor as a commons


  • Sustaining Sectoral Commons. This section is where specialized commons can present and discuss their specific issues.


    • Economics of the physical commons: what can we learn about the governance and economics of local physical commons
    • Economics of digital common: what can we learn from the economics governing digital commons
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