Lines of Commons
In order to understand the phenomena of commoning, one has to go back to the era of hunter-gatherers and to the rise of agriculture. As The hunter-gatherers were mostly nomadic in character and their motivation was to move around the seasons in order to reach and foraging food supply, the rise of agriculture signifies the first action of land grab, thus reducing common resources. The Hunter-gatherers tended to have equalitarian ethos with social customs that strongly discourage hoarding and displays of authority, and encourage economic equality via sharing of food and material goods. The rise of agriculture did not only define territory but also addressed it, later on, for a specific economical use. Thus by working the land, the other communities that were on the move, had less grounds to pick and hunt from. Thus a given natural resource was accommodated to a specific use and market value. With time, as agriculture spread, the free lands for hunting and fruit picking were shrinking and with that the abundance was lost. As a result, hunter-gatherers were pushed to territories where agriculture was difficult.
In the 19th century Joseph Pierre Proudhon, has identified that “property is theft”, bringing forward an anti-capital discourse with the idea in mind to restore the commons. Thus not only agriculture, but also the real estate phenomena, and other industrial practices that extract materials from nature and grab and take control of what have been seen as commons: land, natural resources, natural materials, soil, water and air.
The circles of enclosures do not end by that, since this phenomena finds place in other human activity, such as the world wide web, surveillance in public space, to name a few, indirectly affecting other commons like human rights and freedom of speech. One can see that this very forceful dynamic of enclosure in any profitable dimension is pushing towards affecting the balance of systems into a new global order that affects all, from humans to all components of nature, down to fungi, bacteria, fauna and flora..
The tragedy of the commons, as it was conceptualized in 1968 by Garrett Hardin, is contemporarily taking a multi-dimensional horror scenario, affecting stability of all living systems that still survive on earth, including humans. This troubling time is calling for research and action, where the systems of enclosures need to be mapped and their mechanisms understood, in order to develop and implement new systems that are based on commoning actions, thus building back the commons, to bring balance again to compensate and ease the agonizing situation.
The act of mapping asks for interdisciplinary critical research, in order to fully understand a given situation and with that to identify all players and agents in the task. In our critical situation, in order to achieve a direction of change, the research outcomes need to be translated to new policies that need to be developed and implemented, locally and globally. New responsibilities need to be developed organically into new social entities. Collaboration needs to be the everyday language between all organic entities in order to find sustainable balance, which includes novel ways to share resources.
Art and culture play a central role in finding creative and participatory ways to mediate the new agenda to the public. The public’s will and motivation is crucial for establishing change, thus the public needs to be encouraged through diverse modes of actions: involvement, participation and public engagement. Since hard data from researchers are addressing a rational understanding, they are limited to their ability to call for actions. That’s where art and culture can fill the gap, in collaboration with researchers and policy makers, in order to create and deliver public actions and participatory events that mediate vis-à-vis the call for change.
The task in front is enormous, since the challenge is in all possible fronts: air, water, soil, energy and more. The overarching philosophy and spirit of addressing the commons is urging to be one of CARE – care for resources, care for community needs, caring for the more than humans; caring, building up and adopting resilience for an unpredicted future.
