2. 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
3. Tragedy of the
Commons
Private Sector Government
Failed Commons
4. Open Access
Common Pool Resources - unorganized,
unclaimed resources
Open Source
Commons - organized through informal
practices, norms and rules
5. 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
6. Modes of Commons
• Traditional - seas, rivers, land, forests,
atmosphere, arts, indigenous communities
• Emerging - solar energy, internet, social
networks, intellectual property
7. Key Elements
• Resources
• Community
• Boundaries
• Rules
• Value
14. How Did We Lose
The Commons?
• Inalienable rights eroded
• Commodification
• Enclosure of property
• Division of labor
• Universal standard of value
• Private and public goods
16. Liberal Capitalism
Market State
freedom equality
Distorted through
capital accumulation enforced private property
economic & social inequality sovereign boundaries
interest-bearing money state coercion
17. Modern Society
Market State
less government more government
economic freedom social equality
(people & their common
resources taken for granted)
24. Creates Trusts
• Marx: Ownership of the means of production
• Commoners: Production of the means of
non-ownership, i.e. trusts
25. Transforms Property
Private Ownership State Ownership
Commons Trusteeship
Cooperative associations distribute decision-making and
productive power among resource users, workers and producers
27. 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
28. Creates
Living Democracies
Market State
freedom equality
Commons
people participate actively in their own culture
resource users become producers of their own resources
ownership > trusteeship
29. Enclosure Movement
Liberal Capitalism
15th C - Today
Government and market enclosures remove people
from the sources of their living wealth and sustenance
30. 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
31. Occupy all Commons
• Social
• Cultural
• Intellectual
• Digital
• Solar
• Natural
• Genetic
• Material
32.
33. Why Occupy?
• Financial system >
• Monetary system >
• Ecological and energy crises >
• Low-carbon production and trade >
• Redefine the boundaries of resource domains
34. Occupy the Commons
• Transform the economy and government
into component parts of the biosphere >
• Redefine the boundaries of resource domains >
• Occupy the commons ...