This article explores Elinor Ostrom’s “8 Rules of the Commons,” emphasizing how communities can sustainably manage shared resources through cooperative practices. Adapting Ostrom’s principles through an anarchist lens, it discusses how “commoning” can challenge capitalist structures by fostering self-management, mutual aid, and democratic decision-making. The article also critiques Ostrom’s view that commons can coexist alongside capitalism, suggesting a need for more oppositional strategies.
Article Title:
Ostrom’s 8 Rules of the Commons for Anarchists
Author Name:
Usufruct Collective
Language:
English
Excerpt (Optional):
While there are plenty of examples Ostrom looks at that are in harmony with her 8 rules for managing the commons as well as a non-hierarchical approach to social-organization (Ostrom, 2021), other instances of the commons she looks at utilize some methods that those from an anti-hierarchical perspective would disapprove of. Truly emancipatory commons are distinct from quasi-commons that produce commodities and/or are gated against commoners having mutual-access (Federici, 2018). Given the goals of the self-management of each and all, mutual non-domination, wellbeing for all, and ecological flourishing, Ostrom’s core-design-principles can become more coherent through being remixed with insights from anarchism.
Link:
To read more, visit: https://usufructcollective.wordpress.com/2024/10/22/ostroms-8-rules-of-the-commons-for-anarchists/
Access:
Open-access
Author Bio:
The Usufruct Collective is a libertarian communist writing collective.