BOOK REVIEW OF DAVID BOLLIER THE COMMONER’S CATALOG FOR CHANGEMAKING

Book Review of David Bollier

The Commoner’s Catalog for Changemaking.

By: Alexandre Prince, Fashion Act Now Montreal

In recent years, the terms “commoning” and “the commons” have become the central tenents of many approaches towards sustainability, yet, fashion activists have shown very little interest in these concepts until now. In an attempt to bridge the commons framework with fashion sustainability Fashion Act Now (FAN), a global fashion activist group that emerged from the London chapter of Extinction Rebellion, decided to organize its first Reading Group around The Commoner’s Catalog for Changemaking (2022) by American activist, writer and blogger David Bollier.

Over the last 20 years, Bollier has been at the forefront of a real “Commons Revolution,” advocating for a society centered around a collective and collaborative management of shared resources (commons) in order to meet everyone’s needs. As a consequence, this process of commoning “enables people to co-create a sense of purpose, meaning and belonging” (Bollier n.d.). The Commoner’s Catalog embodies these ideas in its very form, as it contains examples of various commons initiatives that are currently in effect around the globe. These initiatives are grouped around key topics, such as food and agriculture, stewardship of water, law and the commons, money and finance, racial justice through commoning, arts and culture, and so on. Many of these topics are adjacent to fashion and outline the importance of local wealth, sustainable farming, or the development of smaller art and culture groups.

Although the book is a thorough work whose value for sustainability research cannot be overstated, members of the Reading Group pointed out that fashion is absent from it. They have proposed that this may be due to fashion’s reputation as something not essential, allegedly based in frivolity and excess. Many sustainable approaches whose framework is very close to that of the commons, such as some Indigenous clothing systems or fashion co-operatives, are absent from the book.

Anthropologist Sandra Niessen spoke of her fieldwork among the Batak weavers of Indonesia, which she linked to the content of the book by noting, “...all my fieldwork is really about the commons. Commons brings us back to our dualism: colonial/decolonial. Anthropologists are not plugged into this enough” (Sandra Niessen, Fashion Act Now, Reading Group Minutes, 7).

Some members also reflected on the fact that Fashion Act Now itself is a commons, insisting on a quote by Dutch designer Thomas Lommée : “the next big thing will be a lot of small things” (Bolier 2021:5). This encompasses both the various alternative institutions presented in the books, as well as Fashion Act Now’s modus operandus, acting as a federation of many smaller, localized, and united clothing commons. Through its platform, FAN wants to bridge communities and initiatives to share alternative ways of thinking about fashion culture. Only then will we be able to work alongside all of the other organizations mentioned in Bollier’s book, from education to agriculture, to envision a brighter tomorrow.

If you are interested in building a better future, feel free to join Fashion Act Now and attend our next Reading Group: https://www.fashionactnow.org/.

Bibliography:

• Bollier, David. The Commoner’s Catalog for Changemaking. White River Junction: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2021. • Bollier, David. “New to the Commons ?” https://www.commonerscatalog.org/new-to-the-commons. Fashion Act Now, Reading Group: https://www.fashionactnow.org/.

Bio:

Alexandre Prince is a Montreal-based historian and fashion researcher, currently pursuing a masters’ degree in Media Studies at Concordia University. He studies how new media can be used as a tool for decolonizing the fashion discourse in zones that are far away from the traditional fashion capitals. He is also an active member of Fashion Act Now.

Old spinning mill on Læsø

Photo by Emilie Thomsen