Wendell Berry. In the Presence of Fear.(Great
Barrington, MA: The Orion Society, 2001).
Available from Sonoma State Bookstore and North
Light Books. Also available online at: http://www.oriononline.org/pages/oo/sidebars/America/Berry.html
Additional required readings are in the
Course
Reader available from College Center Copy Shop (792-0995, 1435
E. Cotati Ave)
Bernard Lietaer & Arthur Warmoth. Designing Bioregional Economies in the Context of Globalization in Andrew Cohill, Ph.D. and Joseph Kruth, Editors, Pathways to Sustainability: The Age of Transformation (published on-line by the Tahoe Center for a Sustainable Future, 1999).
Jeff Gates. "Transgenerational Financial Terrorism" from AlterNet, August 11, 2003
Jeff Gates. "We the Unreasonable" from Tikkun (July/August 2003)
Jonathan Rowe. (2001, Summer). The hidden commons. Yes! <http://www.futurenet.org/18Commons/rowe.htm>
Arthur Warmoth. "Governing the Commons" (2003)
"What would it be like to live in a democracy that inspires hope and healing in each and everyone of its communities?
"What would public policy look like if our government held, as its primary function, the nurturance of healthy communities and the potential of every individual within it?
"This is the vision of Senator John Vasconcellos, and this is your invitation to join a collaborative network of like-minded citizens committed to developing and implementing this new form of governance, THE POLITICS OF TRUST."A project of the John Vasconcellos Legacy Project, this Network is dedicated to implementing a visionary human agenda for California in the coming decades. There are two complementary goals for the project:
Politics of Trust: California 2020 Sonoma County Network
- To nourish the development public policy options that will promote the realization of our better nature, at the state and local levels
- To do this in ways that increase the quality and quantity of democratic political participation
Scandals in recent headlines, beginning with Enron and followed by corporate giants including Arthur Anderson, Global Crossing, K-Mart, Tyco, Merrill Lynch, Adelphia, WorldCom, and AOL-Time Warner, are reminding all of us of the ethical and structural limits of global capitalism. Now is the time to explore the economic and political advantages of complementary community and bioregional economies.Conventional economics is essentially the economics of markets, of manufacturing and trade. Insufficient attention is thus paid to the question of the nature of money as such. Furthermore, a large arena of economic activity that cannot be traded in market is ignored. This economic arena is sometimes referred to as public goods and services. However, there is no widely accepted term to refer to these collectively consumed goods, services, and collectively held assets. Recently some commentators have begun to refer to this economic arena as "the commons."
This web site offers a comprehensive introduction and guide to a complementary economics of the commons, which is the basis for asustainable community economy. Developing sustainable local economies will require us to re-think much of the conventional wisdom about basic economic structures. Two fundamental innovations are complementary or local currencies and micro-lending. It is also necessary to look at the structure of asset ownership and the problem of the aligning of the rules of the economic game with sound ecological principles.
What is the commons?The commons is everywhere. It is the air we breathe, the words we speak, the traditions we respect. It is tangible and intangible, ancient and modern, local and global. It is everything we inherit together, as part of a community, as distinct from things we inherit individually. It is everything that is not privately or state-owned.
"The" commons is actually the sum of many separate commons, just as "the" market is the sum of many markets. Thus, "the" commons (like "the" market) is a concept rather than a thing or place. By contrast, the many separate commons are not concepts. They consist of real things, spaces and systems.
The commons as a broad concept has significant power to help us understand the world around us. In particular, it helps us recognize the importance of assets, activities and values that exist outside the market economy.
The many separate commons that make up "the" commons have distinct boundaries, features and rules. Some of these commons have legal recognition, but the vast majority do not. They are out there, functioning in real time in the real world, though like the dark matter of the universe, they are largely unseen.
The problem
The problem is that the commons is ceaselessly invaded, colonized and destroyed by the market economy's drive for short-term profit.
For example, our air, water and soil are constantly polluted by wastes that are freely dumped in these off-balance-sheet "sinks." Similarly, our minds are constantly invaded by commercial enticements, while our arts, sciences and even politics are increasingly run to suit profit-maximizing corporations. The pattern is always the same: the expanding market transgresses on the vulnerable commons.