The Commons

Firstly, I haven’t read about the commons since my undergrad days and I definitely had a limited definition in my mind about what constitutes the commons. So this article was integral in opening up my mind as to what commons can be: not just land that is jointly farmed but marine areas, forests, dialects, air, silence, and genetic diversity to name a few. And to get more abstract, the author says that it’s not fruitful to define the commons through their physical domains, but instead through their social and cultural organizations. I particularly appreciate working with the definition of “a system of common rights”. This is a big shift from my other impression of the commons but it is more encompassing which seems necessary given the examples in the article.

Also contributing to my new impression was the information about how these systems are regulated with communal rules and practices and how crucial it is to keep this power at the local level. One reason for this makes complete sense: when people rely directly on their natural surroundings to sustain themselves they also develop an intimate knowledge of their surroundings and this knowledge directly informs their actions. This sounds ideal at first and one might think that all contributors would agree on issues because they are working with this set of common, intimate knowledge about their common rights, but that’s not necessarily true. I agree that people are more connected and informed about their surroundings and this is of huge significance, but that doesn’t mean they will always agree on what action to take about their surroundings. Having said that, I agree that it’s important to keep power at the local level for this and the other reasons listed.

It was interesting that the author pointed out that government, international planning agencies and also many conservationists hold hostility towards commons regimes. Members of these groups think that local control over land, forests, and streams will lead to environmental destruction. Then the author’s bias really comes out when he says the only way they think you can protect the environment is to put a fence around it and give it economic value through development. It was easy for me to get sucked into the romanticism of the commons from reading this article but this comment was a blast back into the reality that not everyone agrees with the system of common rights.