Conclusion

The commons in Europe: from past to future

“…Despite the European long tradition in common property institutions, the social, economic and technological changes occurring since the industrial revolution have seriously challenged the use and management of common-pool resources (CPRs) on the continent (Brakensiek 2000;De Moor et al 2002;Vivier 2003). Since the middle of the 18 century, commons have received increasing oppoth sition as they were considered as an inefficient way of resource management.…”

Communities and sustainability in medieval and early modern Aragon, 1200-1600

“…As a result, they preserved large swathes of common land, kept foreigners away from them, guaranteed equal political rights to all the members of the village in order to restrain the actions of those better-off, and watched the use of the natural resources. Many of the issues raised in the article have been dealt with in numerous works covering different parts of Europe in the medieval, early modern and modern periods (Vassberg 1984;de Moor et al 2002, 15-32;Demelas and Vivier 2003), but cases differ from country to country. I want to stress a political argument that connects, in an explicative way, the social nature of these communities with three elements: 1) the participation of members in the political decision-making, 2) the sustainability of their environmental decisionmaking, and 3) the historical origin and nature of different swathes of commons.…”