✕
RETHINK
ECONOMICS
RETHINK
ECONOMICS
... and receive personalised notifications on
new pluralistic content directly into your inbox!

The Future of Commons

Friederike Habermann & Simon Sutterlütti,
Summer Academy 2022 for Pluralist Economics, 2022
Level: beginner
Perspective: Other
Topic: Resources, Environment & Climate, Social movements & Transformation
Format: Syllabus

This workshop was originally taught at the Summer Academy for Pluralist Economics 2022
Instructors: Friederike Habermann, Simon Sutterlütti (Commons Institute, Germany)

The Future of Commons – Workshop

Commons stand for a plurality of practices ‘beyond market and state’ as the famous Commons scholar – and first female noble prize winner of economics - Elinor Ostrom put it. Their practice and theory challenge classical economic theory and stand for a different mode of caring, producing and governing. Within this workshop we want to dive into theory, practice and utopia of Commons following four blocks:

Our first block will be dedicated to understanding Commons. Different approaches to analyze Commons were put forward, and in discussion with Garret Hardin’s ‘Tragedy of the Commons’, neoclassical commons theory, Ostroms school and others we try to understand history, well-known commons projects – such as Wikipedia, common pastures or community-supported agriculture -  and everyday practice of Commoning – the practice of producing Commons. 

Our second block investigates the relationship of Commons and other form of socioeconomic provisioning such as market economy and state-planned economy. Commons activists and theorists put Commoning forward as a third-way of economic re/production that is essentially democratic, care-oriented and develops a non-colonizing relationship towards our natural surroundings. We will evaluate their critic of market and state-planned economy and discuss their claims.

As Commons usually are thought to be small-scale or niche-phenomena in our third block we take a look at theories that try to upscale Commoning to a society-wide mode of coordination, caring and production such as Ecommony, Care-Economy or Commonism. 

Our fourth block is dedicated to the question of socio-ecological transformation. Commons theoretician and activists criticized existing transformation theories for devaluating or even neglecting the importance to not only reform existing structures, but to create and even live a different economy. We will discuss these claims and ask what part Commons could and should play in a socio-economic transformation. 
 

Reading List

First impressions: 

Block 1: Hardin, Ostrom & Commons

Three perspectives on Commons (read & prepare in groups)

    Group I: Traditional
  • Ostrom: Communal tenure in high mountain meadows and forests: Tröbel, Switzerland (61 - 65) & Similarities among enduring, self-governing CPR institutions (88 – 102)

   Group II: Commons Economies

  • Peterson, Nicolas (1993), Demand Sharing: Reciprocity and the Pressure for Generosity among Foragers, in: American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 95, No. 4, S. 860-874. 

   Group III: Pattern Language

    Group IV: Post-Capitalism

  • J.K. Gibson-Graham, Jenny Cameron and Stephen Healy, 2016. “Commoning as a postcapitalist politics.” In Releasing the Commons: Rethinking the Futures of the Commons, edited by Ash Amin and Philip Howell, Chapter 12, Routledge. 

Further Reading: 

Block 2: Capitalism and the Commons

Block 3: Utopia

Block 4: Transformation

 

Download syllabus here

Tags: commons | social ecological transformation | social-ecological transformation | tragedy of the commons | transformation
This workshop offers an introduction to Degrowth and Ecological Economics. It starts by surveying the socio-ecological crisis and its pseudo-solutions, and then moves to Ecological Macroeconomics as a relatively recent field of scholarship within Ecological Economics. 2021 Level: beginner Ecological Economics and Degrowth Corinna Dengler und Birte Strunk Summer Academy for Pluralist Economics Ein ungebremster Klimawandel stellt eine existenzielle Bedrohung dar. Was bedeuten diese Erkenntnisse für die Ökonomik als Wissenschaft? Ich schlage eine neue Agenda für die Ökonomik des Klimawandels vor, die sich auf eine Kernfrage bezieht: Wie kann der nachhaltige Wandel erleichtert werden? 2020 Level: beginner Ökonomik in der Klimakrise: Zeit für neue Fragen Kerstin Hötte Economists for Future Ein Gespräch über Heide Lutoschs Buchkapitel "Embracing the Small Stuff - Caring for Children in a Liberated Society" im von Christoph Sorg und Jan Groos herausgegebenen Sammelband Creative Construction - Democratic Planning in the 21st century and beyond. 2024 Level: beginner Heide Lutosch zu Sorge in der befreiten Gesellschaft Heide Lutosch Future Histories Podcast In this article, Hannah Ritchie presents the data we need to understand the scale of their contribution, and which countries are most reliant on Ukraine for their food supplies. 2022 Level: beginner How could the war in Ukraine impact global food supplies? Hannah Ritchie Our World in Data Is degrowth bad economics? To properly answer this question, it is essential to understand what economic growth really is. The term ‘growth’ is often associated with an increase in wealth, a term loosely defined, but according to the degrowth-movement, economic growth is a narrower concept only describing an increase in Gross Domestic … 2022 Level: beginner Is prosperous degrowth feasible? Timothée Parrique aliveintheanthropocene.world Die Bundestagswahl 2021 wird die Weichen für ein energiepolitisch entscheidendes Zeitfenster stellen – und sollte daher zur Klimawahl werden. Allerdings befindet sich die Politik in einer Ambitions- und Umsetzungskrise, die es dringend zu überwinden gilt. Ein Beitrag von Franziska M. Hoffart und Claudia Kemfert. 2021 Level: beginner Wir haben kein Erkenntnisproblem, sondern eine Ambitions- und Umsetzungskrise Franziska M. Hoffart & Claudia Kemfert Economist for Future Die Covid-19-Pandemie hat gezeigt, dass manche wirtschaftliche Zonen wichtiger sind als andere, um Lebensgrundlagen zu sichern und ein gutes Leben zu ermöglichen. An dieser „Alltagsökonomie“ gilt es anzusetzen, um Wirtschaften zukunftsfähig zu machen. Ein Beitrag von Richard Bärnthaler, Andreas Novy, Leonhard Plank und Alexandra Strickner. 2020 Level: beginner Die Alltagsökonomie für ein gutes Leben R. Bärnthaler, A. Novy, L. Plank & A. Strickner Economist for Future El evento “Economía popular y solidaria en la actual crisis latinoamericana”, fue pensado como el producto final de la apasionante y enriquecedora experiencia que fue la Formación Económica Pluralista Global. 2021 Level: beginner Economia popular e solidária e a atual crise latino americana Sibelle Deniz Colmeia Solidári (Universidad Federal de Minas Gerais)

Donate

This project is brought to you by the Network for Pluralist Economics (Netzwerk Plurale Ökonomik e.V.).  It is committed to diversity and independence and is dependent on donations from people like you. Regular or one-off donations would be greatly appreciated.

 

Donate