Rethinking Scale in the Commons by Unsettling Old Assumptions and Asking New Scale Questions

Smith, Huston; Basurto, Xavier; Campbell, Lisa M.; Lozano, Alejandro García

doi:10.5334/ijc.1041

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Commons

Gyuris

2022

International Encyclopedia of Geography

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The commons are those goods and resources that are not privately owned and governed. The term originates from institutional economics classifying goods along the lines of consumption rivalry and consumers' excludability. In the Cold War period, commons were widely regarded as insufficiently managed, prone to overuse, and thus subject to either privatization or nationalization. However, from the late twentieth century they have been increasingly considered environmentally and socially more sustainable – and more equitable – than private goods. This conceptual shift has led to the emergence of a vivid academic domain called commons research, which increasingly employs political economy frameworks to reveal the socially constructed and power‐laden nature of the commons. In addition to the traditional environmental commons, a rich literature has emerged about the social commons, especially the digital, urban, and knowledge commons. Commons research pays increasing attention to the spatial dimension, including scrutinizing the relational and socially constructed spaces and scales of the commons.

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