The Commons: Shared Wealth and the Importance of Communal Assets, Slides of Environmental Economics

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Chapter X

What Is

the

Commons?

Chapter 1

2 All That We Sha re

WE L C OM E TO T H E C OM MON S.

The term may be unfamiliar, but the idea has been around for centuries. The com- mons is a new use of an old word, meaning “what we share”—and it offers fresh hope for a saner, safer, more enjoyable future. The commons refers to a wealth of valu- able assets that belong to everyone. These range from clean air to wildlife preserves; from the judicial system to the Internet. Some are bestowed to us by nature; others are the product of cooperative human cre- ativity. Certain elements of the commons are entirely new—think of Wikipedia. Others are centuries old—like colorful words and phrases from all the world’s languages. Anyone can use the commons, so long as there is enough left for everyone else. This is why finite commons, such as natural resources, must be sustainably and equitably managed. But many other forms of the com- mons can be freely tapped. Today’s hip-hop and rock stars, for instance, “appropriate” (quote) the work of soul singers, jazz swing- ers, blues wailers, gospel shouters, hillbilly pickers, and balladeers going back a long time—and we are all richer for it. That’s

the greatest strength of the commons. It’s an inheritance shared by all humans, which increases in value as people draw upon its riches. At least that’s how the commons has worked throughout history, fostering demo- cratic, cultural, technological, medical, eco- nomic, and humanitarian advances. But this natural cycle of sharing is now under assault. As the market economy becomes the yard- stick for measuring the worth of everything, more people are grabbing portions of the commons as their private property. Many essential elements of society—from ecosys- tems to scientific knowledge to public ser- vices—are slipping through our hands and into the pockets of the rich and powerful.

The Wealth We Lost

One example of what we’re losing comes right out of today’s headlines about spiral- ing health care costs. The creation of many widely prescribed drugs, which millions of people depend upon, was funded in large part by government grants. But the exclusive

What, Really,

Is the Commons?

It’s what we own together, and how we work together to make things happen

4 All That We Sha re

now that I have been advocating for the commons over the last twenty years. I real- ize we’re not just a small group advocating that the people have a voice in the broad- casting media. We’re all a part of something so much bigger, and that helps us to keep going.” It’s not necessary that everyone adopt the word commons. What matters is that people understand that what we share together (and how we share it) is as impor- tant as what we possess individually.

Parallels to the Origins of

Environmentalism

Growing interest in the commons today resembles the origins of the environmen- tal movement in the 1960s. At that time, there was little talk about ecology or the greening of anything. There was, however, a lot of concern about air pollution, pesti- cides, litter, the loss of wilderness, declin- ing wildlife populations, the death of Lake Erie, toxic substances oozing into rivers, oil spills fouling the oceans, lead paint poison- ing inner-city kids, suburbia swallowing up the countryside, mountains of trash piling up in landfills, and unsustainable farming practices ravaging the land. Yet the word environment did not become a household word until the first Earth Day—April 22,

1970. Bringing an assortment of issues to- gether under the banner of environmental- ism highlighted the connections between what until then had been seen as separate causes and fueled the unexpected growth of

the environmental movement over the next few years. The commons offers the same prom- ise of uniting people concerned about the common good in many forms into a new kind of movement that reshapes how people think about the nature of ownership and the importance of collaboration in modern society.

A New Way of Thinking

and Living

More than just a philosophical and political framework for understanding what’s gone wrong, the commons furnishes us a toolkit for fixing problems. Local activists eager to revitalize their community and protect open space are setting up land trusts—a form of community ownership distinct from both private property and government manage- ment. Savvy Web users use the coopera- tive properties of the Internet to challenge corporations who want to undermine this shared resource by fencing it off for private gain. Villagers and city dwellers around the world assert that water is a commons, which cannot be sold, depleted, or controlled by anyone. These kinds of efforts extend the mean- ing of the commons beyond something you own to a bigger idea: how we live together. Peter Linebaugh, a preeminent historian of the commons, has coined the word “com- moning” to describe the growing efforts he sees to protect and strengthen the things we share. “I want to stress the point that

the commons is an activity rather than just a material resource,” he says. “That brings in the essential social element of the com- mons.” David Bollier, one of the leading theorists of the commons on the international stage, has defined the term as a social dynamic. “A commons arises whenever a given commu- nity decides it wishes to manage a resource in a collective manner, with special regard for equitable access, use and sustainability. It is a social form that has long lived in the shadows of our market culture, and now is on the rise, ” he wrote in the British politi- cal journal Renewal. Julie Ristau and Alexa Bradley, commu- nity organizers with extensive experience, find that many people have internalized the competitive ethos of the market mentality so fully that they believe any cooperative action is doomed to fail. They’re losing the ability

to even think of working together. Yet at the same time, Ristau and Bradley detect in others “a broad yearning for hope, connec- tion, and restoration. We see a remarkable array of efforts to reconstitute community, to relocalize food, to move toward coop- erative economics, to better harmonize our lives with the health of our planet. These efforts spring from a deep human need and desire for different ways of interacting and organizing resources that will help us recon- stitute our capacity for shared ownership, collaboration, and stewardship.” Growing numbers of people are taking steps that move us, gradually, in the direc- tion of a commons-based society—a world in which the fundamental focus on compe- tition that characterizes life today would be balanced with new attitudes and social structures that foster cooperation. This vision is emerging at precisely the point we

A commons-based society refers to a shift in policies and values away from the market-based system that has dominated modern society for the past two hundred years, with a particular vengeance in the past thirty. A commons-based society would place as much emphasis on social justice, democratic participation, and environ-

mental protection as on economic competi- tiveness and private property. Market-based solutions would be valuable tools in a commons- based society, as long as they do not undermine the workings of the commons itself.

— Ja y Wa l l j a s p e r

What Is a Commons-Based Society?

A new way of life that values what we share as much as what we own

C O M M O N S S E N S E

What Is t h e Co mm o ns? 5

Air & water

The Internet

Parks, libraries, streets, & sidewalks

Our DNA

Blood banks, soup kitchens, twelve-step groups,

museums, nonprofit organizations

Dance steps & fashion trends

Social Security, the National Weather Service,

police protection & other public services

Fishing & hunting

The airwaves (radio, television, cell phone)

Where to Find

the Commons

From DNA to dance steps, it’s all around

What Is t h e Co mm o ns? 7

8 All That We Sha re

Christmas, Halloween, Passover, Ramadan,

Mardi Gras, & all holiday traditions

Poker, hopscotch, & soccer

Biodiversity

Taxpayer-funded medical & scientific research

Wikipedia

Robin Hood, Athena, & the Little Mermaid

Sushi, pizza, tamales, & family recipes

The jump shot, kimonos, bookkeeping systems,

& the Heimlich maneuver

Public education, public transportation, & other

public services

Open-source software

Jokes, fairy tales, slang, & anecdotes

The oceans, Antarctica, & outer space