4.1.1 The commons as a system

Helpful prior knowledge and learning objectives

Helpful prior learning:


Learning objectives:

In southern India, women farmers in the village of Erakulapally gather each season to share seeds saved from their harvest. These women avoid costly chemical fertilisers and pesticides and genetically modified seeds. Instead, they share traditional techniques and seed varieties adapted to their region. Their shared efforts ensure that every family has enough food, and also helps preserve the health of the soil and the biodiversity of their crops.

Women farmers sharing seeds in bowls

Figure 1. Women farmers in the village of Erakulapally gather each season to share seeds saved from their harvest

(Credit: Deccan Development Society)

Artists, writers, and musicians all over the world create and share their work in the Creative Commons system. Artists give others the right to use, remix, and build upon their work without needing to ask permission. Each creator decides which intellectual property rights they want to keep and which rights they want to give away, making it easier for people to access and share creative content legally and ethically.

This open framework supports a wide range of creative collaborations, like educational videos, remixed songs and many of the images used in this book. Creative commons also supports a global community of creators who believe that knowledge and culture grow stronger when they are shared freely.

Logos for Wikipedia, The Met, and Khan Academy

Figure 2. Many organisations like these make their work widely available to others to use without permission through Creative Commons licences.

(Credit: Creative Commons)

In Hawaii, a local surf group called the Wolfpak keeps a watchful eye on the waves at Pipeline, a legendary surfing spot known for its huge, hollow waves. The Wolfpak’s members don’t own the ocean, but they enforce rules about who can surf, maintaining a balance between locals and visitors. By establishing an informal code of conduct, sometimes by force, they help ensure safety in the water and preserve the spirit of respect for the powerful surf.

A surfer surfing the Pipeline wave in Hawaii

Figure 3. A group of surfers set rules for using the Pipeline waves on the North Shore of Hawaii

(Credit: Alan Grinberg, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

These communities are all part of the commons. Each of these commons— preserving seeds, sharing creative works, and protecting surf spots—developed on their own, without the direction or oversight of a state or other central authority. These commons have a larger collective purpose while still providing personal benefits for the people involved. None of them are primarily focused on making money. Yet, even without the direct involvement of markets or the state, useful production and governance take place. These groups rely on cooperation, trust, and a commitment to keep their resources available and thriving for their community, now and in the future.

What are the commons?

The commons is a provisioning institution where the shared resources of a group are used and managed in accessible ways through self-organised management and social practices. The commons is one of four main provisioning institutions in the economy along with households, markets and the state.

Commons are systems, sets of interdependent parts that organise to create a functional whole. Let’s see what this means.

An illustration with people representing the community, sheep on land representing the resource, and a book with writing representing rules.

Figure 4. Commons consist of three elements: the resource, the community, and the rules

(Credit: Heinrich Böll Foundation, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Parts of the commons

Three parts—resources, community, and rules—are the building blocks of any commons:

Figure 4. This online textbook is a resource shared in the commons

Resource


Can be anything: a forest, a river, a building, tools, internet platform, knowledge…

Figure 5: Groups of people support community supported agriculture (CSA) around the world

Community


A group of people who share a concern or interest for that resource and work together to sustain it


Figure 6: Many of us already share a space with rules and norms


Rules


Rules, practices and social norms help the community members manage the resource fairly and sustainably.

Relationships in the commons

The commons is more than just these building blocks—it’s mainly about relationships, both among people and between people and the shared resource. A key part of the commons is that a community actively manages the resource for the benefit of everyone in the community. This active management is called commoning. A commons is mostly about the social practices, values, and responsibilities that bring people closer together to care for the resource. These relationships involve cooperation, mutual support, and the creation of shared rules and social norms. 

Members don’t just divide their work and resolve conflicts together. They also develop direct, respectful relationships with the resource itself, whether it’s land, water, knowledge or some other resource. They care about the resource and manage it as stewards. This care changes the thing from a resource that can be used, bought and sold, into care wealth, something that is cherished as a part of a community’s identity and culture. Organising care as a social practice helps ensure the health of the community’s shared wealth over time for the benefit of everyone involved.

Functions of the commons

The commons serves many functions, providing for human needs like food, water, or knowledge that people rely on in their daily lives. Beyond that, commoning also helps strengthen social and ecological resilience. By working together and following shared rules, people build trust, form strong relationships, and learn how to solve problems as a group. This social resilience makes communities more adaptable and able to respond quickly, flexibly, and creatively to challenges like economic changes or weather extremes. 


Caring for natural resources through commoning also helps maintain healthy forests, rivers, and other ecosystems as humans interact with them. This strengthens both social and ecological resilience over time, enabling communities to better withstand unexpected changes and thrive in the long run.


You will get a better sense of the different functions of commons and the different types of relationships that form in different contexts in Subtopic 4.2, which describes some different areas where commoning happens.

Activity 4.1.1

Concept: Systems

Skills: Reflection

Time: ca. 25 minutes (depends on whether the final question is asked and how much discussion occurs)

Type: Individual, pairs, or group


Video of seed commoning

Saved by a Seed : Meet the woman who preserves over 90 endangered varieties of grains


Ideas for longer activities and projects are listed in Subtopic 4.5 Taking action

Checking for understanding

Further exploration

Sources

Bollier. D. (2021). The Commoners Catalog For Changemaking: Tools for the Transitions Ahead.  https://commonerscatalog.org/

Bollier, D. and Helfrich, S. (2019). “1. Commons and Commoning,” in Free, Fair and Alive: The Insurgent Power of the Commons. Gabriola Island: New Society Publishers. 

Bollier, D.  (2025). Think Like a Commoner, 2nd edition. Gabriola Island: New Society Publishers.  https://www.thinklikeacommoner.com/

 — “The Seeding Sharing Solution,” Bollier.org [David Bollier’s blog], January 19, 2011. https://www.bollier.org/seed-sharing-solution

Terminology (in order of appearance)

Link to Quizlet interactive flashcards and terminology games for Section 4.1.1 The commons as a system


fertiliser: a chemical or natural substance added to soil or land to increase its fertility

pesticide: a chemical that kills pests

genetically modified: an organism with genetic material that has been artificially altered to produce a desired characteristic

biodiversity: the variety of living organisms on Earth

system: a set of interdependent parts that organise to create a functional whole

intellectual property: creations of the human mind such as inventions, designs, data, logos, computer code, and others

ethics: a set of moral principles about right and wrong that affect how people make decisions and lead their lives

culture: the beliefs, values, attitudes, behaviours and traditions shared by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next

commons: a system where people self-organise to co-produce and manage shared resources.

market: a system where people buy and sell goods and services for a price.

state: a system that provides essential public services, and also governs and regulates other economic institutions

governance: the process of overseeing the control and direction of something

provisioning institution: a group of people and their relationships as they try to meet human needs and wants

economy: all the human-made systems that transfer and transform energy and matter to meet human needs and wants

household: a system where people living together care for each other and do domestic work, often termed the 'core economy'

norm: a social rule for accepted and expected behaviour, can be stated or unstated

sustainability: meeting people’s needs within the means of the planet

commoning: when a group of people self-organise to manage shared resources

value: ideas about what is important or good

care: the act of providing what is necessary for the health, welfare, upkeep, and protection of someone or something

steward: to manage or look after something

resource: a stock or supply of money, materials, staff, and other assets that can be drawn on by a person or organisation in order to function effectively

care-wealth: shared wealth that is created when people take care of forests, water, data, or urban spaces, and adopt these resources into their shared memory, culture, social lives, and identities

culture: the beliefs, values, attitudes, behaviours and traditions shared by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next

care: the act of providing what is necessary for the health, welfare, upkeep, and protection of someone or something

resilient: able to recover after a disturbance

economy: all the human-made systems that transfer and transform energy and matter to meet human needs and wants

ecosystem: the interaction of groups of organisms with each other and their physical environment