Commoning is an ancient but newly rediscovered social paradigm of provisioning and governance that arises whenever a group of people seek to steward shared wealth in participatory, fair-minded,sustainable ways. Operating independently of state power and capitalist markets, commons can be seen in open-source peer production and Wikipedia, cohousing and cooperatives, community land trusts and CSA farming, alternative currencies and timebanking, among many other realms. This session will explore the broad scope of commoning today, its inner logic and dynamics, its role in addressing climate change, inequality, and authoritarian culture, and necessary strategies for expanding the Commonsverse. After David’s presentation, Jerry Koch-Gonzalez will discuss with David the synergy between commoning and sociocracy. We will close with a period of comments and questions.

Watch the recording of the webinar with David Bollier below:

Instructor

David Bollier is the Director of the Reinventing the Commons Program at the Schumacher Center for a New Economics (US) He is an activist, independent scholar, and author of The Commoner’s Catalog for Changemaking (2021); Free, Fair and Alive (with coauthor Silke Helfrich); and Think Like a Commoner (2014), among other books on the commons. He lives in Amherst, Massachusetts, and blogs at Bollier.org.