Commons

Discover "The insurgent power of the Commons & the crisis of imagination," a captivating episode of the Ecologia podcast in partnership with the Heinrich Boell Foundation Tunis. Explore the potential of the Commons to shape a sustainable future!

The world of commoning represents a profound challenge to capitalism because it is based on a very different ontology. Many of us have internalized the language of separation and individualism

A very important figure in debunking the myth of the “tragedy of the commons”, was political scientist and political economist, Elinor Ostrom. She was the first woman to win the Nobel prize in economics. She received this prize for her extensive research on patterns of successful commons governance.

Conventional economists have long seen the commons as an inventory of resources that are free for the taking, or that can potentially be owned and shared by all, such as the oceans, the atmosphere, outer space, the Internet. The focus is on commons as a resource or property, and not on commoning.

A resource does not equal a commons. It is only when a community engages in processes of commoning, that a commons emerges.

These keypoints are based on David Bollier’s article, “The Commons, Short and Sweet” (2011).  The commons is a social system for the long-term stewardship of resources that preserves shared values and community identity.  

While the term the commons is often read as a noun referring to things that can be shared – such as the sea, the internet, or land – it is actually much more helpful to understand the commons as a verb.

In Tunisia, indigenous and peasant seeds are discreetly exchanged between committed farmers and associations. They work together in a spirit of solidarity that is reminiscent of the commons, resisting the pervasive use of hybrid seeds.

With his straw hat tightly screwed on his forehead and his pitchfork in his hand, Elyes bends down to pick up a handful of dried posidonia* strewn on the ground. "Some people say that I must be crazy to put this in my garden", he regretted while pointing out the seagrass that he himself picked up on the beach of Chebba.

In Makthar, in the governorate of Siliana, an association has transformed the only middle-school and residential school in the region. From energy autonomy to food self-sufficiency, transmission, and empowerment, a whole system revolving around sharing is being organized.

Imagine a village whose inhabitants discover a water spring with drinking water. The villagers decide to share this resource so that everyone in the village can get their drinking water from it - including future generations. This means that the water spring will neither be owned privately, nor managed by the state.