The Liberal Commons

Within this section, the author examines the liberal case for the commons through the perspective of leading theorists on the area. Elinor Ostrom, Lawrence Lessig and Yochai Benkler. All three place the development of the commons in parallel with state and market operation. They advocate for the coexistence of the commons with capitalism and the state. Ostrom’s work is discussed as focusing on the problem of collective action by elaborating the model of polycentrism. Lawrence Lessig and Yochai Benkler expand Ostrom’s work from the local to the global commons of the Internet and free/open source software. They introduce the term ‘digital commons’ to describe a non-market sector of information characterised by an ethic of sharing, self-management and cooperation between peers who have free access to online platforms. Benkler often diverges from classic liberalism by pointing to the autonomous development of the commons beyond capitalism and the state. Yet this underlying goal generally conforms to the liberal tradition. Discussion of the arguments of Cornelius Castoriadis and others stresses the impotence of the liberal commons in addressing the contradictions of capitalism and the state pointing to the ‘lack of the political’. The author argues in line with these perspectives that economic democracy is vital to underpin a digital commons.

The Reformist Commons

Within ‘The Reformist Commons’, the author establishes the views of a wide range of reformist theorists. This reformist approach to the commons combines liberal, social democratic, socialist and revolutionary elements in multiple variants. In the context of Benkler’s three basic future scenarios for the com­mons the author goes onto critically engage with the work of a number of thinkers who have further argued for the autonomisation of commons-based peer production in such models as the green governance (David Bollier and Silke Helfrich) and collaborative commons (Jeremy Rifkin) and platform cooperativism (Trebor Scholz) . Also discussed are Bauwens and Kostakis’s model of open cooperativism incorporating the ecological model of Design Global Manufacture, cosmolocalism and a partner state abetting commons-based peer production, Adam Arvidsson and Nicolai Peiterson’s ‘productive publics’ and digital distributism (Douglas Rushkoff). The author concludes with Erik Olin Wright’s arguments for how institutional space might be freed up for strategic action towards a commons-orientated transition. Wright’s perspective, the author argues offers the most holistic political alternative by integrating the self-instituting power of the people into a strategic pluralism based on multiple pathways of social empowerment, embodied in a variety of structural transformations. This may function as an institutional multi-format for the various reformist approaches advocated by the other thinkers.

Conclusion: Reformatting the Commons

In the context of autonomous and classical Marxist views.

The Anti-capitalist Commons

Chapter four critically reviews the anti-capitalist literature on the commons, comprising of various interpretations of Marx’s work, among others. The first section investigates the relation of the political and the common in a broad spectrum of continental political philosophy, including ‘post-hegemony’ notably Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe and the autonomous Marxist tradition (Michael Hardt and Toni Negri) in the context of Alexandros Kioupkiolis’s critique who points to the crowding out of the self-instituting power of the people in several Marxist and post-Marxist interpretations of the common. The second section focuses on the work of Pierre Dardot and Christian Laval who have reintroduced the self-instituting power of the people in political discourse as the essential concept of ‘the common’. The third section illustrates a more concrete version of the common, articulated in the Katharine Gibson and Julie Graham’s work, who sketch out the philosophical and empirical preconditions of a community economy. The fourth section deals with the concept of the common as the self-instituting power of the people to introduce variants of autonomous Marxism, ranging from post-capitalism to anti-capitalism. Lastly, the fifth section examines the conception of the common in the context of autonomous and classical Marxist views . Authors discussed include Nick Dyer-Witheford, Massimo De Angelis, George Caffentzis, Silvia Federici, Slavoj Žižek, Jodi Dean, David Harvey, Paul Mason and Christian Fuchs. The author concludes that a set of policies could be integrated into a holistic, post-hegemonic strategy for a post-capitalist, com­mons-orientated transition drawing also on some reformist perspectives.

Introducing the Commons

This introduction outlines peer production (P2P) as a type of social relations, a technological infrastructure and a new mode of production and property, whereby participants have maximum freedom to co-operate and connect. In the last decades, the author notes that the rise of peer production has been driven by three main factors: the sustainability crisis, neoliberalism and low cost information and communication technologies (ICTs). These factors have led to three main streams of peer production: firm-hosted peer production or platform capitalism (user-centric open innovation business models; the so-called sharing and gig economy); the commons (local and digital commons, the solidarity economy); and a hybrid commons-based peer production operating on the models of platform and open cooperativism. In turn, the author establishes his post-hegemonic perspective, focusing on commons-based P2P which is facilitated today by the architectural design of the Internet. To conclude, Vangelis proposes the book’s intention as to produce a critical dialogue between the different approaches to the commons, putting forth a postcapitalist commons-orientated transition beyond neoliberalism. freedom to co-operate and connect. In the last decades, the author notes that the rise of peer production has been driven by three main factors: the sustainability crisis, neoliberalism and low cost information and communication technologies (ICTs). These factors have led to three main streams of peer production: firm-hosted peer production or platform capitalism (user-centric open innovation business models; the so-called sharing and gig economy); the commons (local and digital commons, the solidarity economy); and a hybrid commons-based peer production operating on the models of platform and open cooperativism. In turn, the author establishes his post-hegemonic perspective, focusing on commons-based P2P which is facilitated today by the architectural design of the Internet. To conclude, Vangelis proposes the book’s intention as to produce a critical dialogue between the different approaches to the commons, putting forth a postcapitalist commons-orientated transition beyond neoliberalism.