Managing the Commons to Save Human Habitat
Sat, 03 Sept
|La Trobe Art Institute
Join Elsie L'Huillier and Rob Eales from the locally based Commoners Co-op in a discussion about debunking the 'tragedy of the commons' and learning how to live like a commoner.
Time & Location
03 Sept 2022, 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
La Trobe Art Institute, 121 View St, Bendigo VIC 3550, Australia
About the event
'Simply put, commons are any scarce resource that provide users with tangible benefits, but aren’t owned by anyone. So, the ocean, an open pasture or even a community garden could all be considered part of the Commons.'
The workshop will focus on the works of Elinor Ostrom, an expert in community economics who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2009, and David Bollier, author of Think Like A Commoner.
The session will include time for discussion about the future of the Bendigo Commons!
Elinor offered 8 principles for how commons can be governed sustainably and equitably in a community and found many examples from local communities – small traditional groups with high social capital, that have often created collective solutions to the tragedy of the commons by themselves.
The 8 Principles for managing Commons include:
- Define clear group boundaries.
- Match rules governing the use of common goods to local needs and conditions.
- Ensure that those affected by the rules can participate in modifying the rules.
- Make sure the rule-making rights of community members are respected by outside authorities.
- Develop a system, carried out by community members, for monitoring members’ behaviour.
- Use graduated sanctions for rule violators.
- Provide accessible, low-cost means for dispute resolution.
- Build responsibility for governing the common resource in nested tiers from the lowest level up to the entire interconnected system.
Find out more here: https://geo.coop/articles/how-design-commons
Supported By La Trobe University Arts Institute.