A commons-based society refers to a shift in values and policies away from the market-based system that dominates modern society, especially over the past 30 years. The foundation of the market is narrowly focused on private wealth, while the commons is built upon what we all share—air, water, public spaces, public health, public services, the Internet, cultural endowments and much more. One of the most compelling ideas being raised today is the possibility of evolving from a market-based society to a commons-based society. The commons has always been an element of human civilization. But its central role in sustaining all societies has recently been rediscovered, inspiring new lines of thinking in fields ranging from high technology to public health to business. A commons-based society is one that values and protects commons assets, managing them for the benefit of everyone. 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. *
Excerpted from the Commons Learning Alliance:
“Government’s job in the 21st century is to restore the balance between the commons and the market that grew so distorted in the 20th century. This can be done without raising taxes or expanding bureaucracy.
What might America look like with a healthy balance between commons and market? Here are some glimpses:
– A market sector that pays its way
Polluters and other commons users pay for usage rights. Pollution, advertising and congestion are reduced. More money flows to common purposes, without higher taxes.
– A stronger democracy
Spectrum fees cover most electoral campaign costs. Fewer elected officials are indentured to monied interests
– A culture of popular participation
An open Internet hosts diverse commons and provides access to other media. There are shorter copyrights and new legal vehicles for sharing creativity. Funding flows to the arts, non-commercial radio and TV.
– Science in the public interest
University research focuses on common needs. Most discoveries remain in the public domain.
– Every baby a trust fund baby
Everyone receives, as a birthright, a cash inheritance and yearly dividends. This income comes from rent charged for use of scarce common assets. The commons thus becomes a source of sustenance for all, as it was in pre-industrial days.
In conclusion:
Restoring a commons/market balance isn’t a utopian dream. It’s a necessary and doable task. Nature and our ancestors have already done the hard work : they created most of the wealth we simply inherited. All that’s missing – all we need to build – are appropriate legal and institutional protections for that wealth.
The real utopians are those who believe the market can continue unbridled forever. This dream has great allure, but it’s a dangerous fantasy. The reality is that, without a healthy commons, the market (and much else) won’t survive the 21st century.”
At the same site, Alexa Bradley & Julie Ristau explain why the commons matters ‘right now’:
“12 Commons Dispatches for These Times
1. The commons and the creation of a commons-based society is a radical yet practical and necessary proposition for our times.
2. Commons exist all around us. We can learn from them. People everywhere for centuries have created both formal and informal systems to use shared resource and make collaborative decisions. Commons come in many forms—from communal fishing arrangements to libraries, from the rules governing waterways to the partnerships that define open source software, cooperatives, musical sampling and community gardens. While some of these forms are new, most have their roots in traditions and survival strategies from other times.
3. The commons is a way of naming a set of relationships and understandings. The existence of a commons is only possible within the context of collaborative, reciprocal and equitable relationships. These relationships hold a commons intact and ensure its fair use and continued health. The commons also calls forth a set of relationships that extend in ways that the market suppresses—to include future generations, other living beings with whom we share the planet, and the very resources on which we depend.
4. Commons are central to the life and vitality of community, offering a system of meaning and value that is not simply transactional or narrowly based on the market. Resources in a commons are part of the totality of a community—its economic survival, its history, its ecological health, its beauty, its identity, its resilience, the relationships among its people, its life blood.
5. The commons expresses an understanding that communities have a fundamental and equitable claim to our common inheritance of natural and created abundance, and play a critical role in the stewardship of those resources. A commons is what we share and how we share it.
6. The commons, then, begins with a claim. This claim is a collective one made by a community on the natural or social resources that are shared and belong to them all. It is a claim for equitable benefit whose history stretches back in time. In Europe, peasants asserted hunting and gathering rights that predated the legal authority of kings and landowners—these rights were recognized in the Magna Carta. And they were recognized in different ways by other cultures across the planet. This is a radical and liberating history.
7. The commons carry responsibility. The community entrusted with those resources must ensure their equitable and just use as well as their preservation for the future. Equity and stewardship are intertwined at the center of a commons with community members acting as the protectors, co-creators and beneficiaries.
8. The commons—as both an idea and practical arrangement—reminds us the vital difference between petitioning for access and sharing in the benefits. We cannot be satisfied with resources and spaces the powers that be designate for our “access” or “input;” we must assert our direct claim upon the resources necessary for our survival and well being.
9. There is a link between the material erosion of the commons and the erosion of the idea of the commons. As the ability to think in terms of the commons diminishes (to even be able to conceive of such a thing), the actual commons of our society are left vulnerable to appropriation, destruction and neglect. As we have lost much of our commons, we have unconsciously relinquished a sense of the commons. The same is true for the regeneration of the commons: we need to animate both commons thinking and the reclaiming or creation of actual commons.
10. We have all lived the commons in some manner, even if that word was never used. While the term “commons” comes from European history and the specific struggles of commoners to claim their rights, other cultures have similar and often more enduring traditions of communal ownership, interdependence. resource sharing and stewardship. Across these traditions and in our own memories there is great wisdom and practical experience to draw on as we forge the modern day commons.
11. The idea and language of the commons has been misused. Powerful colonizers and corporations and colonizers have used the language of the commons (as well as common good, common heritage, public interest and so on) to justify the appropriation of resources and dislocation of communities, particularly indigenous people. Resistance to this kind of co-optation and abuse is critical. We must actively work to link commons work to the struggles for equity, racial justice and human dignity.
12. We need a commons revival. Fostering, supporting and animating any kind of commons begins by asking a different set of questions that engage a broader set of people’s experiences and help a community break out of constrained thinking. The goal is to equip communities with the ability to participate in and manage the communities in which they live. This in turn depends on people being able to see and claim resources in new or renewed ways. Because so much works against this possibility in our present society, we must pursue intentional strategies to animate and bolster commons work.”
Watch this video:
We also recommend this 12 minute introduction to the Global Commons by Leo Burke: