The commons concept names shared practices protecting seeds, water, forests, and soil worldwide.
Evidence
We will also use the term “environmental commons.” For modern industrial cultures, the most basic concept and practice of the “commons” dates back to ancient English law, where peasants shared land for grazing their animals, as well as decision-making practices for how to do so without over-taxing the land and thus degrading it for future use. While we may borrow this concept—“the commons”—from that ancient time and place, diverse cultures across the planet have also developed ideas and practices designed to protect what they need from the natural world to survive: gathering, developing, exchanging, and protecting seeds for future planting, protecting water sources, nurturing and protecting forests, caring for and protecting the soil and biodiversity more generally. These forms we refer to as the “environmental commons” (Bowers, 2006). — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education, 1359
Categorization
- DEFINE: Defines ‘environmental commons’ for teachable curriculum, the chapter’s central operational concept.
- XREF: connects to: The commons are unowned and require no money to access. — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 1360; Economic abandonment forced Detroit residents to revive commons practices of barter and mutual care — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 1479; Detroit’s 1,000+ urban gardens trace their food-commons roots to African and slave agricultural traditions — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 1482 (+5 more)
Broader Connections
- Commons organizing names the process by which communities jointly produce and govern common goods.
#expands(0.80) — Laura Albareda and Alejo Jose G. Sison, Commons Organizing, 17 - Commoning practices vary with each commons’ unique context, aims, membership and culture.
#qualifies(0.78) — Yael Arbell, The Circle of Commoning, 1 - Commons function as social resources binding communities together, not just property rights.
#expands(0.75) — Emil Sandström and Ann-Kristin Ekman and Karl-Johan Lindholm, Commoning in the periphery – The role…, 10 - Commons organizing fuses ethical common-good production with peer sharing.
#expands(0.75) — Laura Albareda and Alejo Jose G. Sison, Commons Organizing, 151 - Collective action sustains commons for symbolic as much as material ends.
#corroborates(0.72) — Emil Sandström and Ann-Kristin Ekman and Karl-Johan Lindholm, Commoning in the periphery – The role…, 76