Discussion about this post

User's avatar
cutr00t's avatar

Working backwards through your writing. This is an excellent piece, I'm going to need to contemplate a while. Thank you for advancing ideas that have expanded my worldview.

Do you have a reading list? Does it make sense to set one up? Or perhaps two, those of your recommendations and a group contributed (maybe group curated) list? Maybe an rword wiki?

Expand full comment
James R. Martin's avatar

"The commons, according to David Bollier, “is a resource + a community + a set of social protocols. The three are an integrated, interdependent whole.” The community has an interest in managing the resource, and the social protocols are intended to help manage the resource for the benefit of all members of the community. As you will see, this emphasis upon human valuing and social agreements is at the heart of the Prosocial process, at the scale of multigroup society and single groups.

The word “commons” derives from the Norman word commun. To commune is to participate, to share and enjoy fellowship. And in turn the word “commun” draws upon the word munus, which means “a gift, service, or duty” that in turn contributes to the word munificent, meaning “bountiful, liberal, generous,” and the Latin munificare, meaning “to enrich.” Thus the “commons” literally refers to sharing gifts to enrich all. Sharing of gifts implies both the satisfaction of individual needs and a duty to the collective. David Bollier argues that it is more helpful to treat the commons as a verb rather than a noun: “commoning” rather than “the commons.” Commoning is the care the community feels for the resource and the community itself; it is the making and implementation of rules of access and use; and it is the social norms and customs that evolve to ease and resolve conflict, encourage cooperation, and punish free riders and shirkers. Indeed, what Bollier calls “social protocols” is what Ostrom sought to codify in her CDPs. And the Prosocial process is our attempt to embody the ethic of commoning in a set of actionable steps. "

Atkins, Paul W.B.; Wilson, David Sloan; Hayes, Steven C. (2019-10-01). Prosocial (p. 30). New Harbinger Publications. Kindle Edition.

Expand full comment
4 more comments...

No posts