Subject: The Tragedy of the Commons Archetype

Posted by Janis Dutton on 11/7/2011
In Reply To:The Tragedy of the Commons Archetype Posted by Janice Hansel on 11/7/2011

Message:

Thanks for bringing up Ostrom. The Nobel Prize committee also found her work very useful :) Her work, and that of Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri and others provide a useful critique of the limitations of defining the Tragedy of the Commons solely through the ecological metaphor of private use (grazing) of common land/pasture while ignoring political/economic/cultural commons.

Jaimie's first question about Island Fisherfolk suffering decline in fish stocks due to poachers brought to mind something Negri said at a panel I attended. He gave a real life example how a large corporate fishing interest came into a sustainable fishing community and redefined the commons. "We will take all of this area, and all y'all can now fish only this little bit over there." So I have to ask what causes a person to poach? Have the poachers seen a decline in their fishing stock for similar reasons stemming from political/economic system and may be starving? Or are they steeped in mental models of a cultural system than promotes individualism instead of community?

Likewise, the questions of rise of asthma in children in urban neighborhood as well as urban "decay" are steeped in political and economic systems that have gave rise to the historical and deliberate disinvestment in urban areas, the more recent outsourcing of jobs gentrification and lack of affordable housing, and the rise of corporate rule over democracy. (Anyone modeling Occupy?) Add to that the cultural assumptions about poverty, people living in poverty, and who has rights in and to the city.

In other words, these are indeed endogenous problems.

Janis