Commons Governance

Definition

Patterns for managing shared resources that prevent capture while enabling coordination. The commons is neither private property nor state-managed — it is collectively stewarded by those who depend on and contribute to it.

Significance

The dominant narrative (Hardin’s “Tragedy of the Commons”) assumed that shared resources inevitably degrade without private ownership or state control. Elinor Ostrom’s Nobel Prize-winning work demonstrated this is false — communities worldwide have successfully governed commons for centuries using diverse institutional arrangements.

Extending commons governance to digital resources (knowledge, software, protocols) is the foundation of cosmo-local coordination.

Core Principles

• Defined boundaries — Clear about who the community of stewards is
• Proportional costs/benefits — Those who contribute more have appropriate voice
• Collective choice — Affected parties participate in rule-making
• Monitoring — Transparent tracking of resource use
• Graduated sanctions — Proportional responses to violations
• Conflict resolution — Accessible, low-cost mechanisms
• Self-determination — External authorities recognize community governance
• Nested enterprises — Commons within commons for complex resources

Related Concepts

• Polycentric Governance — Nested decision-making
• Cosmolocalism — Local governance, shared knowledge
• Bioregionalism — Place-based governance

References

• Elinor Ostrom, Governing the Commons (1990)
• David Bollier, Think Like a Commoner (2014)
• Silke Helfrich & David Bollier, Free, Fair, and Alive (2019)