How the coronavirus is forcing us to think beyond market and state Published: 17 July 2020 Analysis The Corona crisis demonstrated in fast motion the dilemma into which market-state-thinking leads. This is where commons come into play, i.e. what people do and are able to do with each other in a self-determined, self-organised, needs-oriented manner and without any marketing interest. By Silke Helfrich
The Potato Park of Peru Published: 25 January 2016 Up to 4.000 potato varieties are growing in Peru in a high-altitude Sacred Valley of the Incas. Six Quechua communities have been able to maintain the integrity of their biocultural traditions and fragile ecosystem. By David Bollier
How the Bangla-Pesa tapped the Value of an Informal Community Published: 25 January 2016 What if a poorer community created its own currency to foster social exchange? We interviewed Ruddick, the founder of the Bangla-Pesa to learn more about his remarkable experiment in community-based money. By Will Ruddick
Farm Hack: A Commons for Agricultural Innovation Published: 22 January 2016 In 2011, a community of farmers, designers, developers, engineers, architects, roboticists and open source thinkers came together in Boston, Massachusetts, to explore a simple yet radical idea – that great improvements in agriculture could be achieved by reducing barriers to knowledge exchange. By Dorn Cox
How I Have Been Conducting Research on the Commons Without Knowing It Published: 20 January 2016 Making commons come alive again in everyday life seems like a revolution that can be interpreted through two lenses. Is it a rediscovery of precapitalist and prestate organizational principles or is it a break with the current political order? By Étienne Le Roy
The Ethical Struggle to Be Human: A Shack Dwellers Movement in South Africa Published: 19 January 2016 In 2005 Black shack revolted because they felt betrayed by the government. After that they started to organize their protest. Their demand for recognition goes beyond the liberal tradition of “inclusion” in a political or legal system. By Nigel C. Gibson
Commons and Alternative Rationalities: Subjectivity, Emotion and the (Non)rational Commons Published: 18 January 2016 Andrea J. Nightingale points out that emotional attachments to land, seascape and community can help subjectivities to foster successful commoning. By Andrea J. Nightingale
India: Women Protect Common Forest Rights in Rajasthan Published: 18 January 2016 Nichlagarh, an adivasi village in the forest region of Southern Rajasthan, is caught between the bureaucratic regime of the Forestry Department (FD) of India and progressive legislation that claims to restore the traditional rights of commoners. By Soma KP and Richa Audichya
Venezuela: "We Are One Big Conversation" Published: 21 January 2016 Cecosesola is a network of about sixty cooperatives and grassroots organizations in Venezuela, with about 20,000 members. The cooperatives sell at weekly markets and provide community-backed loans, among many other services. By Silke Helfrich
Southeast Asia: Regionalism of the Commons Published: 29 October 2015 Some countries, as Vietnam, fear it, others, like Thailand, have high hopes - what can be expected of ASEAN's neo-liberal project? About its future perspectives and an alternative vision. By Bonn Juego