FINDING COMMON GROUND

The document argues that the 'commons'—resources managed by autonomous citizens through cooperation and reciprocity—offer a necessary third way between the state and the market. It explores various applications, from urban 'commoning' in Italy and France to seed-saving in India and the legal challenges of space mining. The text highlights how neoliberal privatisation has driven a 'third wave' of collective action and calls for EU policy to shift from a growth-centric model to one that supports stewardship and social-ecological sustainability.

• The 'commons' are described as a governance model based on self-governance, self-regulation, and self-management, involving a group of 'pro-sumers' who make collective decisions on the use of shared resources.
• Historically, collective action in Western Europe has occurred in three waves: the first in the late Middle Ages (rural commons and urban guilds), the second from 1880 to 1920 (cooperatives and trade unions), and a current 'third wave' driven by the failure of privatisation and commercialisation of public goods.
• In South Eastern Europe, the commons serve as spaces of confrontation against a 'developmentalist' trajectory characterized by the commodification and expropriation of natural and public resources, often justified by European integration.
• Urban commons in Italy, such as the Ex-Asilo Filangieri in Naples, challenge the dichotomy of public versus private ownership by focusing on 'civic and collective use' and participative governance.
• The digital commons encompass immaterial goods like knowledge and culture, but are threatened by 'anti-commons privatisation policies' embedded in international trade agreements that extend copyright terms.
• EU policy is criticized for prioritizing economic growth and competitiveness over the commons, specifically through the 'enclosure of knowledge' via intellectual property protections and a lack of support for community-controlled renewable energy.
• In India, the fight for seed commons, led by organizations like Navdanya, resists the corporate appropriation of life and the 'biopiracy' of indigenous biodiversity by multinational corporations.
• The Polish government's inland waterway plans for the Vistula and Odra rivers are viewed as a threat to the common good, potentially increasing flood risks and destroying Natura 2000 habitats to serve the hydro-engineering industry.
• Outer space is considered a global commons under the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, but the US Space Resource Exploration and Utilization Act allows private companies to own materials mined from celestial bodies, creating a conflict between national law and international non-appropriation principles.

APA

Green European Journal (2016). FINDING COMMON GROUND. https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/GEJ_Vol14_EN_web.pdf

Chicago

Green European Journal. FINDING COMMON GROUND. 2016. https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/GEJ_Vol14_EN_web.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Green European Journal |title=FINDING COMMON GROUND |date=2016 |url=https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/GEJ_Vol14_EN_web.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{greeneuropeanjournal2016finding, author = {{Green European Journal}}, title = {{FINDING COMMON GROUND}}, institution = {Green European Journal}, year = {2016}, url = {https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/GEJ_Vol14_EN_web.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }