In the aim of exploring progressive futures, two of our programs at THE NEW INSTITUTE this year investigate practices of commons and commoning as alternative ways of living that are less ecologically destructive and socially unjust. This ranges from land commons in ‘Reclaiming Common Wealth’ led by Isabel Feichtner to the planet in ‘Governing the Planetary Commons’ led by Louis Kotzé. In this newsletter series, we will share key insights and interventions we develop along the way.

The starting point of these programs is the growing recognition that the dominant paradigm of social provisioning and value production since the Industrial Revolution neither consistently creates social wellbeing nor operates within planetary boundaries. The pursuit of private interests, the focus on material growth as the primary measure of economic success, the domination of nature, and the externalization of the social and natural costs of production (principles which have stimulated innovation and created material prosperity) have reached their limits.

The task today is developing new paradigms for socio-economic life that are more socially and ecologically just. Getting there requires, in the first instance, cultivating alternative social imaginaries and attempting practical, institutional experiments in living together.

Commons and commoning are envisioned as promising possibilities for healthier ways of co-habitation. In this framework, resources (from natural resources, like farms and fisheries, to housing and land to planetary commons, such as the atmosphere and ocean) are in some sense owned, shared, and managed by collectivities rather than private individuals. Collective ownership does not automatically mean a centralized state. Determining who ‘the commoners’ are and how decisions get made is a central topic of commons and commoning research. The key is to avoid conceiving of the commons as a ‘thing’ that is owned; rather, commons is better understood in its verb form: commoning. It is a process, activity, development, experiment. This is to say, this framework is not monolithic; there is a wide spectrum of commoning possibilities, ranging from mutual aid groups to shared housing to democratically governing the planetary commons. From this multi-perspectival orientation, we explore which practices of commoning – and at what scale – promote social and ecological justice.

Overall, the commoning framework seeks to reconnect individuals with a sense of common goods and purpose. It imagines new constructions of value, including new ideas for investing profit; promotes a new ethics of care and consideration, including for the natural world; and fosters desires to pass on a vibrant planet to future generations. If this sounds utopian, in part it is; any new proposal for alternative ways of world-making will sound unrealistic to a stuck present. But this framework is not utopian in the sense of existing nowhere; as our fellow Stefan Gruber traces in his exhibition and publication project Atlas of Commoning, the commons and commoning framework is growing around the world. Join us as we explore the possibilities of this way of imagining, thinking, and acting.