From Citizendium - Reading time: 1 min
Commons refers to:
- A pool or set of common resources together with the agents controlling inflows and outflows of resources from the pool;
- A bundle of rights held jointly or collectively by a group of people; traditionally referred to land or real property, more recently also includes many other types of valuables (knowledge, open source software information, copyrights, social relations);
- (3) An association of those controlling such pools or collectively holding such rights.
"The commons is neither private nor public: neither business firm nor state utility, neither jealously guarded private plot nor national or city park. But it is not usually open to all: the relevant local community typically decides who uses it and how. Indeed, commons regimes can be defined more through their social and cultural organization than their physical location: for example, local or group power, distinctions between members and non-members, rough parity among members, a concern with common safety rather than accumulation, and an absence of the constraints which lead to economic scarcity." [1]
References[edit]
- ↑ Nicholas Hildyard, Larry Lohmann, Sarah Sexton and Simon Fairlie. Reclaiming the Commons. Paper presented at the 1995 Annual Conference of the Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom, York.