The commons in Europe: from past to future

Bravo, Giangiacomo; Moor, Tine De

doi:10.18352/bmgn-lchr.98

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…Social dilemmas, conflicts of interest and selfish, short-term temptations may lead to overuse and ultimately depletion of non-renewable resources unless appropriately managed and regulated. Accordingly, systems of rules and enforcement mechanisms have been considered key to prevent overuse and achieve collectively beneficial outcomes, including both welfare of the commoners and sustainability of the resource use [3][4][5][6][7][9][10][11][12]40]. However, the role of sanctioning for the success of commons has received mixed empirical support.…”

Section: On the Role Of Sanctioning For Non-renewable Resources And Lifespan Of Commonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A growing human population, exploitation, changes in land use, habitat fragmentation and degradation together with ongoing climate change impose severe threats to biodiversity, ecosystems and the human societies that depend on them. Throughout history, the set-up of institutions for collective action, created for the management and use of resources among the members of the collectivity [1,2] has been directed towards collectively beneficial outcomes whilst overcoming conflicts of interest and potential selfish short-term temptations associated with social dilemmas, also referred to as the Tragedy of the Commons [3][4][5][6][7][8]. Despite a growing scientific interest in the management of natural resources under collective governance regime [9][10][11][12][13][14], important aspects of the dynamics and drivers of long-term development of commons-institutions, often spanning several centuries, remain largely unexplored.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Comparisons of historical Dutch commons inform about the long-term dynamics of social-ecological systems

et al. 2021

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Human societies and natural ecosystems are under threat by growing populations, overexploitation of natural resources and climate change. This calls for more sustainable utilization of resources based on past experiences and insights from many different disciplines. Interdisciplinary approaches to studies of historical commons have potential to identify drivers of change and keys to success in the past, and offer advice about the management and use of shared resources in contemporary and future systems. We address these issues by applying an ecological perspective to historical data on social-ecological systems. We perform comparisons and time series analyses for nine successful Dutch commons for which high-resolution data on the regulatory activities and use of shared resources is available for on average 380 years (range 236 to 568) during the period 1300 to 1972. Within commons, institutional developments were oscillating, with periods of intense regulatory activity being separated by periods of low activity, and with the dynamics of regulations being largely independent across commons. Ecological theory posits that species that occupy similar niches should show correlated responses to environmental challenges; however, commons using more similar resources did not have more parallel or similar institutional developments. One notable exception was that sanctioning was more frequent in commons that directed more regulatory activities towards non-renewable subsoil resources, whereas there was no association between sanctioning and the use of renewable resources. This might indicate that commoners were aware of potential resource depletion and attempted to influence freeriding by actively trying to solve the underlying social dilemmas. Sanctioning regulations were more frequent during the first than during the second part of a common’s life, indicating that while sanctioning might have been important for the establishment of commons it was not key to the long-term persistence of historical commons.

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Section: On the Role Of Sanctioning For Non-renewable Resources And Lifespan Of Commonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparisons of historical Dutch commons inform about the long-term dynamics of social-ecological systems

et al. 2021

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“…Anderson, 1975: 107). In this tradition the commons were understood as residuals of earlier, more 'primitive' forms of property that had survived into the modern age: a view that was shared by liberal promoters of the 18th-century enclosures as well as by some of their critics, like, notably, Friedrich Engels (Bravo andDe Moor, 2008: 160, cf. Linebaugh, 2008).…”

Section: The Medieval Commonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Capitalism and the Commons

Arvidsson

2019

Theory, Culture & Society

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This article investigates the potential role of the commons in the future transformation of digital capitalism by comparing it to the role of the commons in the transition to capitalism. In medieval and early modern Europe the commons supported gradual social and technological innovation as well as a new civil society organized around the combination of commons-based petty production and new ideals of freedom and equality. Today the new commons generated by the global real subsumption of ordinary life processes are supporting similar forms of commons-based petty production. After positioning the new petty producers within the framework of the crisis of digital capitalism, the article concludes by extrapolating a number of hypothetical scenarios for their role in its future transformation.

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“…The commons nowadays actually constitute a much wider category than that analysed here. See alsoDolsak and Ostrom (2003) andBravo and De Moor (2008).…”

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confidence: 99%

Common Lands and Economic Development in Spain

Tapia

2015

RHE / JILAEH

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The impact of the privatisation of the commons remains a contested topic throughout the social sciences. Focusing on the Spanish case, this article reviews the literature and provides an overall assessment of this historical process based on recent research. Common lands appear to have been reasonably well managed and their dismantling did not foster agricultural productivity. Instead, the privatisation process negatively affected the economic situation of a large proportion of rural households and local councils, as well as deteriorating the stock of social capital. Therefore, the long-standing belief in the existence of a trade-off between equity and efficiency actually turns out to be misleading.

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The commons in Europe: from past to future

Cited by 3 publications

References 4 publications

Comparisons of historical Dutch commons inform about the long-term dynamics of social-ecological systems

Comparisons of historical Dutch commons inform about the long-term dynamics of social-ecological systems

Capitalism and the Commons

Common Lands and Economic Development in Spain

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