Commoning

The 'Commons' refers to those parts of nature, along with our society, culture and technology, which we use to provide for our needs and wants. It is what capitalists would refer to as 'resources'. This is because they see the commons as something to commodify and exploit.

The commodification of nature has destroyed our once healthy connection with it. We no longer see ourselves as being part of nature or its cycles. This separation has us thinking we are somehow above it all, as little ‘lords’. It encourages a mentality of being nature’s ‘stewards’ or ‘custodians’.

progressive.international/wire/2026-02...

Nailed...

In the mid 1500s, Henry VIII hanged over 75 000 commoners trying to stop the enclosures.

When first we freely roamed the land What then was the aristocrat? Each by nature are born alike, Oppression has us in bondage.

My country is the world, My religion is to do good. Thomas Paine

We relinquish all our powers to this barbaric world.

Two types of property - Capitalist model: Personal - Private - Public All defined by possession. Commoning model: [That which we] Have - Share - Belong To All defined by relationships.

The cherries are already coming out...

Other economic models which share a similar premise to Commoning are 'Indigenous economics' and 'Library economics'. Similar political models include 'Federated #Municipalism' and #direct-democracy anarchism.

Essential reading today. Last year we found that more than four in 10 council homes sold under right to buy are now owned by private landlords. We need to be honest about the devastating impact the right to buy scheme has had on our housing system. neweconomics.org/2024/05/refo...

Community shared wealth was once a norm, even up to quite recent in Europe... www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

An upcoming Commoning event for Bristol peeps... thebristolcommons.org/festival-of-...

www.lowimpact.org/posts/does-f...

'What I stand for is what I stand on.' Wendell Berry

Equipment Libraries are an excellent example of Commoning in action.

We call the non-commodification of nature – Commoning.

Insightful essay explaining the commons by the @usufructcollective.bsky.social... usufructcollective.substack.com/p/ostroms-8-...

Turns out the gaelic north have a word for Commoning... www.theshielingproject.org/posts/d%C3%B...

😌 After 2.5 years of work, it is finally submitted! Radical Municipalism: The Politics of the Common and the Democratization of Public Services As part of @brisunipress.bsky.social "Alternatives to Capitalism" series.

The city of Bristol in Britain is in the process of setting up a local Commons Community... www.thebristolcommons.org While the one in Stroud just to the north has been growing... www.stroudcommons.org

Commoning distinguishes itself not as a response to Capitalism, after the fact, but as the embodiment of the economic system which existed prior to the loss of the commons.

Great little explainer Graphic Novel by the Future Natures team... Do check it out! Though, tbh, some of the terminology is still a little impenetrable for the average person. online.fliphtml5.com/dcumn/xiwi/#...

Libraries are an investment. Not an expense

www.in-abundance.org/reports/food...

Some useful online resources - communalistlibrary.carrd.co

Commodified provision causes habitat and biodiversity loss, over-production - resource depletion, [wage] slavery, warfare, authoritarian oligarchy, rule by violence or threat, displacement, hubris, anthro-supremacy, emotional harm, delusion of ‘mastery’ over nature and subsequent disconnect from it.

When people talk of the classic socialist text The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, they so often talk about men at work. But the story’s also rich with insight into lives of women and children, the domestic sphere and attempts at leisure. All of life is there, suppressed by the capitalist system…

Interesting article: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

"Because we are largely urban dwellers, we are obsessed with human problems. We are so alienated from nature that few of us can even name the wildflowers or insects in our locality, or notice the rapidity of their extinction." James Lovelock