One of the earliest voices to speak out about the importance of the commons was the Ecologist magazine. In 1993 they published a seminal book Whose Common Future: Reclaiming the Commons (New Society Publishers), which still makes powerful reading about why the commons is important.
Here is a provocative excerpt from the book. — Jay Walljasper
The commons cannot be created or strengthened by economists, development planners, legislators or specialists. To place the future in the hands of such individuals would be to maintain the webs of power that are currently stifling the commons.
One cannot legislate the commons into existence; nor can the commons be reclaimed simply by adopting green techniques such as organic agriculture, alternative energy strategies or better public transport—as necessary and desirable as these things are.
Rather, commons emerge through ordinary people’s day-to-day resistance to enclosure, and through their efforts to regain the mutual support, responsibility and trust that sustain the commons.
That is not to say that one cannot ignore policymakers or policymaking. The depredations of transnational corporations, international bureaucracies and national governments cannot go unchallenged. But social movements have a responsibility to ensure that in seeking solutions, they do not remove the initiative from those who are defending or regenerating the commons.