Last week, the International Journal of the Commons published a special issue inspired by the ideas of my 2019 book Free, Fair and Alive, written with my late friend and colleague Silke Helfrich. I am thrilled and honored. The collection of eight essays revolves around the theme, “Advancing the Commonsverse: The Political Economy of the Commons.” In varied theaters of action, it deals with many issues that Free, Fair and Alive focused on, especially the relationality that drives commoning and the tensions between commons and state power.
There are thoughtful pieces on public/commons partnerships in Barcelona, and in Naples and Bologna…. on “the incompatibility of the commons and the public”…. on commons as “relational ecosystems”…. on the need for new ways of studying commons through “comparison and interpretation,” to improve our practical knowledge of how commons work….and a feminist look at the “micro-politics” of commoning and municipalist movements in Spain. (A full list of authors, their essays, and weblinks is below.)
My concluding essay, “Challenges in Expanding the Commonsverse,” reflects on a broad range of contemporary commons movements, the “ontological politics” they are engendering, and the challenges in expanding and institutionalizing commoning today. I pay special attention to the potential of commons/public partnerships, new infrastructures to make commoning easier, legal hacks to open up zones of commoning, the potential of relationalized finance, and new institutional structures of care.
I’m grateful to Professors Hendrik Wagenaar and Koen Bartels, who proposed the special issue to the IJC editors two years ago; assigned and skillfully co-edited the essays over months; and navigated the whole collection to a graceful completion.
Wagenaar, who had briefly collaborated with Silke Helfrich before her passing in 2021, was especially excited to see thoughtful scholars explore the relationality of commoning in specific circumstances. Fittingly, the issue is dedicated to the memory of Silke. A brief tribute notes that “the worldwide community of commons activists and scholars misses her passion, creativity, and unwavering, generous commitment to the advancement and understanding of the commons.”
The special journal issue has two primary goals, write Wagenaar and Bartels in their introductory essay:
The first is to introduce the innovative work of David Bollier and Silke Helfrich in theorizing and researching the commons. The second is to explore the possibilities and constraints of the commons and the process of commoning as they unfold in real-world political-economic settings. Bollier and Helfrich have formulated a remarkable, ‘in-the-round’, moral-empirical theory of the commons. In their social ontology, peer governance and moral economy commons form a subversive alternative to the capitalist order.
Bollier and Helfrich’s theory restores an older tradition of a moral critique of capitalism in the tradition of “moral economists” such as Karl Polanyi and H.P. Tawney. It raises important questions about the socio-ethical foundations of our society and economy, the relationship between civil associations and the state, and the nature of the state. In the final part of this introduction, we discuss the complex relationship between the commons and the state. We frame this relationship as one of mutual dependency and argue for the careful redesign of our institutions of public administration and democratic governance to make them more receptive and accessible to the creative powers of the commons.
Here are the other six essays of this special issue of the International Journal of the Commons:
“What is “Political” in Commons-Public Partnership? The Italian Cases of Bologna and Naples,” by
“Knowledge for the Commons: What is Needed Now?” by
“The Incompatibility of the Commons and the Public,” by
“Towards Democratisation of Public Administration: Public-Commons Partnerships in Barcelona,” by
“No Commons Without Micropolitics. Learning with Feminist and Municipalist Movements in Spain,” by