Part II. Commons as Living, Generative Systems

Part II takes a wide-ranging look at significant types of commons around the world. We will start our survey in Chapter 5 by looking at Indigenous and subsistence peoples’ commons, the aboriginal, most developed genre of commoning. We will then move on to gift economies, alternative local currencies, cooperatives, and arts and culture commons.

The history of commons in Western culture helps explain some of the dynamics of contemporary commons. So in Chapter 6, we’ll explore the often-neglected backstory of commons in England and the protracted, often-violent struggles between commoners and kings, the early nation-state, and industrial capitalism. These legal, political, and social conflicts illuminate challenges that commoners continue to face today.

One lesson that becomes clear is that commons are not just plots of land or bodies of water. As mentioned previously, they are deeply relational systems. They are not just a resource, type of property, or legal form of organization. They are highly varied socio-political organisms that are creative, adaptable, and alive! Chapter 7 will explain how the inner dimensions of commoning make it such an exquisitely resilient, stable social institution. This chapter draws heavily on the insights in my 2019 book with Silke Helfrich, Free, Fair and Alive, which recasts commons as a relational activity, commoning.

Once we introduce these basic ideas, we will continue our survey of commons as living, generative systems. Since the point of commoning is to reclaim social control over things essential to one’s life, place-based commons are an archetypal form. So, in Chapter 8, we will look closely at local commons and vernacular culture as important elements of successful commons. Interestingly, this very sensibility even animates countless digital commons in which the “place” is an imagined virtual space. In Chapter 9, we’ll look at some of the more notable genres of digital commons—familiar and emerging—that flourish on the internet.