Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Wouldn’t sustainable development initiatives, mechanisms and policies considerably gain in effectiveness if they were planned and assessed in relation to the principles, processes and practices of the commons?
A few weeks ago I had an extensive dialogue with a “corporate sustainability architect” who works with corporations and others to design “systemic transformation and company-level solutions.”
As Ivan Illich and Anthony McCann have argued, historically, the commons was not simply a pool of resources to be managed, but an alternative to seeing the world as made of resources.
Food is treated as a private good in today’s industrial food system, but it must be re-conceived as a common good in the transition toward a more sustainable food system that is fairer to food producers and consumers.
The commons, an historical concept, has become an object of interest for the modern social sciences and the general public like few before it.
OTC has been working to implement practical, shared power structures through the Homegrown Minneapolis Initiative.
Cities are ripe with sharing opportunities.
Green Governance by Burns H. Weston and David Bollier boldly argues that…the ancient institution of the commons may help us counteract the “tragedy of the market”…
Learning about the commons…provided an approach for helping social change organizers…take a leap forward in …thinking about how to create a vibrant, life-giving community.
FDR specifically addressed the relationship of government to electric utilities but one could easily translate the theory and principles he proposes to today’s banks, or cable companies or airlines.
What would the world look like if we began to re-conceptualize food as a commons?
Just in a reach of city bus from Athens, there is a community, which may be a living treasure of the commoning in Greece.
