Abstract
This paper explores how commons reproduce over time and introduces the concept of commoning to discuss rural continuities and change. The point of departure is that commons are essential for local community development in that they have an important role for mediating social change and for local identity production. Through an ethnographic and historical study of a number of commons systems from the village of Angersjo in the Midwest of Sweden, the paper argues for a more historically and socially grounded understanding of how commons evolve. The paper examines Angersjo’s commons within two broad historical time frames – the pre-industrial (4th to 20th century) and the post-industrial time periods (20th century to the present) – in order to understand commons, not just as arenas for resource extraction and resource struggles, but also as important contexts for identity formation, local mobilisation and for shaping rural change. The paper reveals how the commons have co-evolved with changes in society at large and how the meanings and functions of the commons have changed throughout history – from being important economic resources – to cultural and symbolic resources that have created new avenues for collective action.
Highlights
Traditional accounts of commons tend to focus on the trajectories of the commons in the context of various disputes over resources
This paper explores how commons reproduce over time and introduces the concept of commoning to discuss rural continuities and change
The point of departure is that commons are essential for local community development in that they have an important role for mediating social change and for local identity production
Summary
Traditional accounts of commons tend to focus on the trajectories of the commons in the context of various disputes over resources. The central dynamic has been the classic conflict-cooperation dichotomy, which has led to attempts to explain under what conditions commons persist and evolve from adversarial relations of resource exploitation to more collaborative ones Those working in this vein have mostly concentrated, following the title of Hardin’s classic contribution on the tragedy of the commons (1968) and Ostrom’s foundational work, on design principles and successful determinants of collective action By using the concept commoning introduced by Linebaugh (2008) and later developed by Bollier and Helfrich (2015) we highlight commons as process that is constituted in the general reproduction of the community emphasising the blurred nature of the commons, as comprising a set of property relations vis-à-vis natural resources and as associational practices around specific places and buildings that are managed collectively regardless of their juridical form Seen from this perspective, commons are juridical and economic resources and important social resources that bind people together in a place for a common purpose. We conclude the study by discussing the central role of c ommons for understanding broader processes of change in which particular localities and identities are produced
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