Occupy the Commons James B. Quilligan

Garrett Hardin

• A pasture is shared by herders

• No herder has an incentive to limit the number of cattle put into the pasture

• Pasture will be overgrazed and destroyed

Tragedy of the Commons

Private Sector Government

Failed Commons

Open Access Common Pool Resources - unorganized, unclaimed resources

Open SourceCommons - organized through informal practices, norms and rules

Commons

Inherited or created gifts that we organize, use and steward during our lifetimes through informal practices and rules which we pass on to future generations

Modes of Commons

• Traditional - seas, rivers, land, forests, atmosphere, arts, indigenous communities

• Emerging - solar energy, internet, social networks, intellectual property

Key Elements

• Resources

• Community

• Boundaries

• Rules

• Value

Resources

Depletable Replenishablematerial, natural, genetic social, cultural, intellectual, solar, digital, natural, genetic

Community

• Producers

• Managers

• Providers

• Users

Boundaries

• Extent of the Resource

• Community Membership

Rules

• Preservation

• Access

• Use

• Governance

• Production

Value

• Arises from the gifts of nature

• The capacities and cultures of past generations

• The collective capacities of people today

Karl Polanyi

Society-centered markets Market-centered societies

Rural households Urban markets

Matriarchal Patriarchal

Credit-based Debt-based

How Did We Lose The Commons?

• Inalienable rights eroded

• Commodification

• Enclosure of property

• Division of labor

• Universal standard of value

• Private and public goods

Duopoly

Market State

Liberal Capitalism

Market State freedom equality

Distorted through

capital accumulation enforced private property economic & social inequality sovereign boundaries interest-bearing money state coercion

Modern Society

Market State

less government more governmenteconomic freedom social equality

(people & their common resources taken for granted)

Third Sector?

Market State

Civil Society

Civil Society

• A genuine voice of public opinion, but ...

• Endorses private ownership models

• Doesn’t involve resource users in production

Commons

Groups of people produce and organize their own resources and create value through their practices, norms and rules

Devolves Power to Local Communities

• Pluralism

• Subisdiarity

• Polycentrism

• Checks & Balances

• Horizontal Democracy

Ends the Division of Labor

Private Producers Govt Producers & Managers & Managers

Workers/Users/Consumers become producers of their own resources

Restores Democratic Decision-Making

• Co-Governance

• Co-Production

• Social Charters

• Commons Trusts

Creates Trusts

• Marx: Ownership of the means of production

• Commoners: Production of the means of non-ownership, i.e. trusts

Transforms Property

Private Ownership State Ownership

Commons Trusteeship

Cooperative associations distribute decision-making and productive power among resource users, workers and producers

Redefines Resource Domains

Recovers the Vision of Democracy

Market State

spontaneous, rule-based self-organizing society system

Commons self-organizing communities produce and manage their own resources through informal practices, norms and rules

Creates Living Democracies

Market State freedom equality

Commons people participate actively in their own cultureresource users become producers of their own resources ownership > trusteeship

Enclosure Movement

Liberal Capitalism

15th C - Today

Government and market enclosures remove people

from the sources of their living wealth and sustenance

Nonclosure Movement

Occupy the Commons

• Governments and markets are not the solution to failed commons, but the cause of their overuse and deterioration

• Roll back enclosures that deny the rights of people to their means of survival, livelihood and well-being

• ... and do not promote life, human dignity, security and peace

Occupy all Commons

• Social

• Cultural

• Intellectual

• Digital

• Solar

• Natural

• Genetic

• Material

Why Occupy?

• Financial system >

• Monetary system >

• Ecological and energy crises >

• Low-carbon production and trade >

• Redefine the boundaries of resource domains

Occupy the Commons

• Transform the economy and government into component parts of the biosphere >

• Redefine the boundaries of resource domains >

• Occupy the commons ...