Based in London, the School of Commoning offers workshops, seminars and courses and has a thriving online presence to connect sharing advocates and facilitators.

Cat Johnson explains:

“The School of Commoning is a worldwide community of people participating in the local and global commons. It offers workshops, seminars and courses and has a thriving online presence to connect sharing advocates and facilitators.

“School of Commoning works to enhance individual and collective competences in the creation, protection, and governance of commons,” says George Por, co-founder of the school. “Commons are what we share in common not through ownership for private gain but through stewardship of resources needed for a good life. As we move towards a commons-based society,” he continues, “we see more and more examples of trust, reciprocity and relationships replacing the commodification of goods and services.”

He emphasizes that community-building is an essential element to creating a commons-based world.

“Building communities around sharing is a key building block of the world we want to live in,” he says. “It is the practical way to get there. Without such learning communities that don’t just talk about ideas but act as laboratories of learning and using new tools, we would just recreate the old structures that got us the mess in the first place.”