Law
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The Cambridge Handbook of Commons Research Innovations Sheila R. Foster
Georgetown University School of Law
Chrystie F. Swiney
Georgetown University School of Law
Description The commons theory, first articulated by Elinor Ostrom, is increasingly used as a framework to understand and rethink the management and governance of many kinds of shared resources. These resources can include natural and digital properties, cultural goods, knowledge and intellectual property, and housing and urban infrastructure, among many others. In a world of increasing scarcity and demand – from individuals, states, and markets – it is imperative to understand how best to induce cooperation among users of these resources in ways that advance sustainability, affordability, equity, and justice. This volume reflects this multifaceted and multidisciplinary field from a variety of perspectives, offering new applications and extensions of the commons theory, which is as diverse as the scholars who study it and is still developing in exciting ways.
Key Features • Offers new understandings of the commons theory in the context of contemporary political and social challenges • Spans multiple themes and disciplines, including international affairs, political science, legal theory, and environmental studies • Brings together expert scholars and experienced practitioners in the field of commons
Contents Introduction: Commons research in the 21st century and beyond; Part I. Revisiting the Origins and Evolution of Commons Thought: 1. Linking the origins and extensions of commons theory; 2. The tragedy of Garrett Hardin’s commons; 3. Kinship and commons: the Bedouin experience; Part II. Averting New Tragedies: 4. Averting tragedy of the resource directory anticommons; 5. Time and tragedy: the problem with temporal commons; 6. Transforming climate dilemmas from tragedy to cooperation; Part III. New Forms of Contested Commons: 7. Urban public housing as a commons; 8. Humanitarian aid as a shared and contested common resource; 9. The economic system as a commons: an exploration of shared institutions;
Part IV. Urban Landscape and Infrastructure as a Commons: 10. Seeing New York City’s urban canopy as a commons: a view from the street; 11. City as commons: the case study of Bologna; 12. Urban commons architecture: collaboration spaces innovating learning within cities; Part V. Reassessing Old and New Institutions for Collective Action: 13. Business improvement districts and the urban commons; 14. To have and to hold? Community land trust as commons; 15. Ostromian logic applied to civil society organizations and the rules that shape them; 16. A conceptual model of polycentric resource governance in the 2030 district energy program; Part VI. Managing and Restoring the Commons: 17. Management of facilitated common pool resources in India;
Additional Information Level: academic researchers, graduate students Series: Cambridge Law Handbooks August 2021 254 x 178 mm c.450pp 978-1-108-83721-7 Hardback £140.00 / US$180.00
18. Social environmental dilemmas and governing the commons: the Itanhém river basin in Southern Bahia, Brazil; 19. Social trust, informal institutions and communitybased wildlife management in Namibia and Tanzania; 20. Restoring the commons; Part VII. Law, Legal Theory and the Commons: 21. Prior appropriations as a response to the tragedy of the commons; 22. Using the public trust doctrine to manage property on the moon; 23. A biotechnology regulatory commons problem; 24. Can affirmative action offer a lesson in fighting enclosure?; Part VIII. Technology, the Internet and the Future of Commons Governance: 25. Can technological change weaken the robustness of common-property regimes; 26. Internet governance in the digital cold war.
