The Shrinking Commons
What do we mean by common property?
What resources do we continue to hold in common?
What is their fate?
The commons have been described as a drama, even - famously - a 'tragedy'. Their fate, their future, has never seemed more parlous, with climate change, population growth, and competition for scarce resources seemingly threatening our greatest common property, the planet itself. Enclosure - once seen as the end of the commons - is touted by some as the only way to protect precious environments subject to encroachment. At the same time, undergirded by a general...
Much discourse in the field of organ and tissue donation suggests that people (in the UK) fear a constant shrinkage of the public virtue of altruism, which therefore needs propping up. It identifies an agent of such shrinkage: people are fearful of the inroads of commerce and monetary motives. At...
Published 01/13/15
As an ideal and material space, the ‘urban commons’ is often understood in relation to either defence or to the production of new collectives. The commons is both something in need of defending, and a generative source for practising ways of living with difference, developing new forms of...
Published 01/13/15
Global development geographies have always been characterized by skewed access to dignified and stable livelihoods and public services. Yet since the late 20th century, the distribution of development resources and social programmes of protection have undergone significant shifts, resulting in...
Published 01/13/15