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The commons: beyond the market vs. state dilemma

on Fri, 07/20/2012 - 14:10

Elinor Ostrom, the Nobel Prizewinner who died this week, pioneered this work. Value is created through the logic of sharing with others in an open and even casual way. Innovation is no longer a monopoly, unassailably colonised by mercantile initiative.

Exploring the Commons

on Fri, 07/20/2012 - 14:01

Today's rediscovery of the notion of the commons stems directly from the need to regulate and to explore how to enable the collaborative action of a multiplicity of protagonists who are autonomous and so not governable by simple authoritative mechanisms.

SoC Supports an Evening with Charles Eisenstein in London

on Thu, 07/19/2012 - 11:05

Today members of the School of Commoning will attend the event tonight 19th July, 'an Evening with Charles Eisenstein' where Charles will be speaking at St. Mary Aldermary on the theme of gift economy, the focus of his new book, Sacred Economics. This event also leads up to a follow up event at Pimlico Academy on Saturday which you can check out on our meetup page here and book via eventbrite here. The groups supporting the event (NEF, Moot Community, Transition Network and ourselves the - School of Commoning) and anyone who is interested are invited to come down to Pimlico and Co-Create "the Beautiful World Our Hearts Tell us is Possible."

The venue for todays 19th July 2012 event sold out a couple of days ago on a capacity of 250 people. If you haven't got your ticket already we will follow up on the key moments in our School Team blog - so watch out for updates over the next week or two. In the meantime take a look at the School of Commoning leaflet we prepared for the event - it has some key web addresses you might not have known about until now...

Solidarity with the Pirate Bay and the future of the Internet

on Tue, 07/17/2012 - 16:19

The following letter is a message we received via email from Stefan Meretz who expresses great concern regarding Peter Sunde's (The Pirate Bay spokespersons) imprisonment and the way Avaaz is handling the petition to pardon him. Stefan calls for our solidarity as commoners. This is indeed a further attempt of enclosure of the commons we can not stand by and continue to let happen...

Will Commoning in England's New Forest Disappear?

on Tue, 07/10/2012 - 16:18
A thousand-year-old tradition of farming commons in southern England may be jeopardized as housing prices drive out farmers and render the commoning rights moot. Yes, there are still self-identified commoners in England. BBC radio recently interviewed a handful of the remaining commoners who rely upon the New Forest in Hampshire to feed their cattle, sheep and chickens. The 23-minute radio report focused on how the farming commons is a way of life that has preserved the distinctive ecological landscape – and how this future is now in doubt.

SoC Commons Workshops at Schumacher North

on Sat, 07/07/2012 - 11:41

Last weekend June 29th-July1st I attended a three day series of workshops on the Commons, in Mythlmroyd, Leeds and Manchester hosted by Schumacher North. Invited a month earlier I was asked to present an outline of the Commons paradigm and participate in the discussions they have begun around commons and commoning. 

The Commons Law Project offers a vital resource for building commons

on Wed, 07/04/2012 - 14:13

Green Governance: Ecological Survival, Human Rights, and Law of the Commons

A forthcoming pivotal book by Burns Weston and David Bollier

(Cambridge University Press, 2013) This book provides a full argument for the vision of a new architecture of law and public policy that can effectively address climate change and other urgent ecological problems while advancing human rights and social empowerment.

Given the manifest failures of the existing State/Market duopoly to achieve these goals, the authors consider as imperative that we move beyond reforms of the existing system to instigate new types of governance structures...

Making Worlds Forum: "Building the Institutions of the Commons", October 18-20

on Mon, 06/25/2012 - 12:50
re-posted from Making Worlds: a Commons Coalition Making Worlds: a Commons Coalition is a collaborative effort by OWS and other groups and individuals to explore the utility of the commons in creating a better world. They bring projects working to reclaim the commons to the fore of the Occupy movement.

Major Group for Children and Youth Rio+20 Closing Statement

on Sun, 06/24/2012 - 09:41

I want you to imagine a generation that has been damned, imagine children deprived of a world without war, imagine a community where human beings are slaves to fellow beings and where disease and hunger are the order of the day. That is the future we warned you of in 92 and that future, is today.

If these sheets of paper are our common future, then you have sold our fate and subsidised our common destruction. Where was our voice, the voice of our children and grandchildren in this? How can you listen to them in the future if you did not show the will to create the space now?

Rio+20 – Tragedy of the Commons 2.0?

on Thu, 06/21/2012 - 10:12

Are the discussions on sustainability at Rio about to end once more with no serious commitment to the fundamental transformations needed? These coming two days will be decisive with heads of state coming to a closure at the end of the week. They are summoned to exercise leadership and face their responsibilities.

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