Sunday, 16 October 2016
Back to the future: the commons as economic model for the @1st century
Many have heard of the commons as a quaint medieval practice where communities (peasants and landowners) alike revolved around an area of common ground where economic interests were mutually served. This model was intended to be put to the intellectual torch by the now infamous "Tragedy of the Commons" paper by Garrett Hardin in 1968. But, as we often say a funny thing happened on the way to the garbage bin of history: with the failure of both the top-down statist economic model in 1989 and of the "free" market model (once again) in 2008, a remarkable thing has happened; growing and respectful attention is being paid to the no longer quaint idea of the commons. And as part of this conceptual journey a route is opening for social economics as a comprehensive economic model rather than a subsidiary alternative. In addition to traditional commons models, new forms are emerging, making for a kind of commons rebirth. Below TorontotheBetter is pleased to review the emerging trend and to welcome comment.
The term social economy has become popular in recent years as a phrase that conveniently opposes economic models narrowly focused on finance and "rational" self-interest. And in this it has been successful as a rallying cry for all those who see economic activity as a tool of human, and so social benefit. At the end of the 20th century, with the two economic models (exclusively market-directed and hierarchically state directed) that had dominated since the birth of the modern age, having demonstrated fatal weaknesses, social economy became a kind of grab-bag of alternatives, ranging from barter, co-operation and gift economies, which each played emancipatory roles in a neo-liberal environment, but were, at root, philosophically and practically distinct, thus suggesting a mixed economy – a state controlled market - as the necessary best of an imperfect bunch.
The term social economy has become popular in recent years as a phrase that conveniently opposes economic models narrowly focused on finance and "rational" self-interest. And in this it has been successful as a rallying cry for all those who see economic activity as a tool of human, and so social benefit. At the end of the 20th century, with the two economic models (exclusively market-directed and hierarchically state directed) that had dominated since the birth of the modern age, having demonstrated fatal weaknesses, social economy became a kind of grab-bag of alternatives, ranging from barter, co-operation and gift economies, which each played emancipatory roles in a neo-liberal environment, but were, at root, philosophically and practically distinct, thus suggesting a mixed economy – a state controlled market - as the necessary best of an imperfect bunch.
But what
has emerged in recent years is a new respect for a more primary and ancient
model of economics for people and planet: the commons. The commons is, in its
purest form of air, water and land, as it existed for millennia before
enclosures, is, arguably, the original economic model, where a group partakes
freely in the world’s natural wealth, while respecting the rights of all
others to do so too and so protecting
the group resource at the same time as
partaking in it. The commons way is found in the difference between using and using
up. Our self-interest is in protecting what we have, not exhausting it. The
environmental movement was the first to make this point politically, but other
groups, from gender-to geographical and cultural groups are increasingly seeing
the wisdom of this and understanding
their common destiny as “commoners”.
As a number
of recent books have noted, many ancient commons have survived the privatization and enclosure frenzy of the
industrial age. But what is really interesting at the beginning of the 21st
century is that new, what we can call “super-natural” commons are emerging. The
most important of these has been, the virtual common that is the Internet. The exciting possibility is that the
universally celebrated virtual commons that is the Internet can be a force for
the “re-commoning” of original physical commons that have been privatized. Why
is this already happening? Because more
and more have understood that privatization, enclosure and alienation have been
producing more and more social waste and destruction, of the environment and the people who live by or on it, as ultimately we
all do.
# posted by Taodhg @ 6:43 am 
