Perspectives on Commoning argues that the commons are not just resources external to us, but are a function or characterisation of what we do. Thus, we can talk of the act of commoning, positioning our behaviour beyond the domains of the private and the public, beyond the dichotomy of capitalism versus socialism.
In the wake of socialism’s demise and liberalism’s loss of direction, new ideas are needed for the next major realignment of the social and political domain. Making a unique contribution to the idea of ‘the commons’, this book offers a radical form of direct democracy with real-world implications. But whereas much of the current scholarship has looked at the commons from the perspective of governance, this book instead focuses on ‘commoning’ as social practice.
Table of Contents
Introduction – Guido Ruivenkamp and Andy Hilton
1. The Prefigurative Power of the Common(s) – Mathijs van de Sande
2. Realising the Common: The Assembly as an Organising Structure – Elise Thorburn
3. Instituting the Common: The Perspective of the Multitude – Sonja Lavaert
4. Insolvency/Autonomy: What is the Meaning of Autonomy in the Semiocapitalist Age? – Franco Bifo Berardi
5. The Conditions of the Common: A Stieglerian Critique of Hardt and Negri’s Thesis on Cognitive Capitalism as a Prefiguration of Communism – Pieter Lemmens
6. Grounding Social Revolution: Elements for a Systems Theory of Commoning – Massimo De Angelis
7. Commodification and the Social Commons: Smallholder Autonomy and ‚Rurban‘ Relations in Turkey – Murat Öztürk, Joost Jongerden, Andy Hilton
8. The Square as the Place of the Commons – Ruud Kaulingfreks and Femke Kaulingfreks
9. Transition towards a Food Commons Regime: Re-commoning Food to Crowd-feed the World – Jose Luis Vivero Pol
10. Seeds: From Commodities Towards Commons – Guido Ruivenkamp
11. Peer-commonist Producing Livelihoods – Stefan Meretz
Hint: Members and friends of the Commons Institute can get a 30% discount for online purchases. Please mail to stefan.meretz at commons-institut.org to get a discount key.