1. School of Commoning cic
Education for Commons Culture & Social Renewal
Commons Workshops
on behalf of Schumacher North

2. COMMONS RESOURCES
The Biosphere The Physiosphere The Noosphere
Natural or Material Commons or Immaterial or
Inherited Common Stock Cultural Commons

3. COMMONS RESOURCES
STEWARDED IN PROVIDED BY
A COMMONS PARTNER STATE
COMMON POOL PUBLIC GOODS
RESOURCES
Source: James Quilligan Seminar Autumn 2011

4. KEY FEATURES
MOVING FROM I TO WE
NETWORKED CIVIL SOCIETY - 21ST
CENTURY COMMONING :-)
SOCIAL CHARTERS
CO-PRODUCTION
CO-GOVERNANCE & ORGANIZATIONAL
MODELS - TOWARDS THE COMMONS TRUST
- CIC’S, CLT’S
Source: James Quilligan Seminar Autumn 2011

5. KEY FEATURES
PARTNERSHIP GOVERNMENT
CONSCIOUS MARKETS - CIC’S, CO-
OPERATIVES, ETC
COMMONS MONEY
COMMONS PROPERTY
COMMONS TRUSTS
Source: James Quilligan Seminar Autumn 2011

6. PRINCIPLES
PLURALISM -- A WIDE VARIETY OF STAKEHOLDERS PARTICIPATE IN
HORIZONTAL DECISION-MAKING OF ISSUES THAT AFFECT THEM
SUBSIDIARITY -- CITIZENS TAKE DECISIONS AT THE LOWEST POSSIBLE
LEVEL OF AUTHORITY
POLYCENTRISM -- DECENTRALIZED MANAGEMENT IN THE USE,
PROTECTION AND RESTORATION OF A RESOURCE
CHECKS & BALANCES -- STAKEHOLDERS CREATE PARTNERSHIPS FOR
GOVERNANCE, REBALANCING THE MARKET’S DOMINATION OF
GOVERNMENT Source: James Quilligan Seminar Autumn 2011

7. PRINCIPLES
RESOURCE USERS
BECOME THE PRODUCERS
OF THEIR OWN RESOURCES

8. COMMONS TIMELINE
A Brief History of the Commons
• < 10’000 BC Egalitarian Tribes - The peer 2 peer dynamic where users are
the producers of their own resources. Functional Components: Land
• 10’000 BC Agricultural Revolution - 1st Economic Shift: onwards things
began to change, then a division of labour and creation of cities in 4’000BC.
Functional components: Land & Labour
• 535 Emperor Justinian - res communes those resources that couldn’t be
owned by private or public sector.

9. COMMONS TIMELINE
A Brief History of the Commons
• 1215 - Magna Carta, Charter of the Forest
• 1300s - Enclosures began in Europe.
• 1500s - 2nd Economic Shift: Science & Industrial Rev.
Functional components: Land, Labour & Capital

10. COMMONS TIMELINE
A Brief History of the Commons
• 1960s - 3rd Economic Shift: Systems paradigm, electronic rev,
instantaneous communication, internet.
• 1968 - Garret T Hardin’s 1968 article in Science Magazine.
• 1970s - Study of commons, discovered commons are a rich
source of community and culture.
• 2009 - Elinor Ostrom - Nobel Prize for Economics 2009 - was a
huge milestone for the commons movement.

11. THE END OF AN ERA
When we look at the long history
of the commons we can see that:
Todays economy is not a recession. It is the end of an era

12. EXAMPLES - LOCAL
COMMUNITY BILL OF RIGHTS
Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF)
e.g, Ecuador adding Rights for Nature to its Constitution
e.g., Pittsburgh stripping drilling corporations of corporate constitutional “rights,”
such as corporate “personhood”

13. EXAMPLES - LOCAL
FOOD COMMONS / FOOD SOVEREIGNTY

14. EXAMPLES - LOCAL
COMMUNITY MANAGED FORESTS

15. EXAMPLES - LOCAL
COMMUNITY MANAGED WATER SYSTEMS

16. EXAMPLES - LOCAL
TRANSITION TOWNS

17. EXAMPLES - REGIONAL
WANA FORUM CHARTER

18. EXAMPLES - REGIONAL
GREAT LAKES COMMONS TRUSTS

19. EXAMPLES - REGIONAL
ALASKA PERMANENT FUND

20. EXAMPLES - GLOBAL
(PROPOSED)
EARTH CLIMATE COMMONS TRUST

21. EXAMPLES - GLOBAL
(PROPOSED)
GLOBAL FINANCING OF COMMONS RESTORATION

22. EXAMPLES - GLOCAL
OPEN SOURCE, FREE SOFTWARE, OPEN DESIGN

23. WE ARE EVERYWHERE
The Landless Workers
Solidarity Economy De-Growth Movement / via
Movement Movement Campesino
Open Access Water Activism Open Education
Publishing Resources
P2P Design Transnational Tribes
Transition Towns
Free Software Creative Commons
Maker Movement
Pirate Parties
Occupy Movement Public Banking