Enabling State

Dr. Ioanni Delsante, during his lecture on Architecture and Democracy. Commons (space) and its negotiations (Delsante, 2020) explained that the commons are formed of three key elements: the people, the resource and the rules. The people also known as commoners, are the ones involved in production and maintenance of the commons. The common resources can be material or non-material meaning that they can be physical, such as empty buildings or non-physical, such as knowledge or information. The rules are set in place by the commoners and used to manage the commons in a non-profit way through collective negotiation. Based on David Bollier’s explanation in his brief overview The commons, Short and Sweet (Bollier, 2011) the commons is a system for the governance of resource which shares and maintains values as well as community identity, without being completely dependent on the market or the state. Bollier also states that wealth which is created through the commons must be passed on.

Elinor Ostrom, a political economist, through many years of research into the commons has identified key design principles which are essential to the creation and function of commons. These are presented by Sheila Foster and Chistian Iaoine (Foster, Iaoine 2017) as:

1. The resource boundaries must be clearly defined.

2. Use and provision of the resource is adapted to community circumstances.

3. Rules and decisions are made through collective-choice arrangements.

4. Rules are enforced through effective monitoring.

5. Violation of community rules are punished with graduated sanctions.

6. Conflicts are resolved through low cost and accessible conflict resolution mechanisms.

7. The right of resource users to self-govern is recognised by higher level authorities.