# A Framework for Understanding Commons & Commoning
developed in 2017 by
Silke Helfrich is an uninstitutionalized academic and independent activist.
David Bollier is a commons activist, scholar, author and blogger.
Working Together Teamwork Puzzle Concept. source
Commons & Commoning are World-Making in a Pluriverse, complex adaptive processes, that consist of a simple symbiotic triade: the social section (commoning), the institutional and organizational section (peer governance) and the economic section (provisioning).
Each section has multiple dimensions, which are listed below. It is important to understand, that these sections don't describe something different. They rather describe the same - aspects of commons & commoning - just seen through different lens depending on the section's focus. There is therefore an overlap and correspondence among the dimensions (let's call them patterns) on each list.
Note that the lists do not assert universal, ahistorical principles of commons, but rather recurrent, general *patterns* of commoning that vary widely. (Foto Wikimedia Commons 
the triad
These are the dimensions we consider key for thriving commoning processes. Remember: There is no commons, without commoning.
- Cultivate Shared Purpose & Values - Ensure Fair Abundance-> see notes, will probably be deleted - Strengthen the Nested-I - Contribute Freely -> was: Decouple Giving & Taking - Practice Gentle Reciprocity - Honor Care -> will be changed - Ritualize Togetherness - Trust Situated Knowing - Be Creatively Adaptive -> will probably be deleted - Deepen Interdependency on Nature (or: Deepen Communion with Nature) - Preserve Relationships in Addressing Conflicts - Reflect on Your Peer Governance
Peer-Governance is an expression of self-organization. It is distinct from governing for the people. It is also distinct from governing with the people. It is governing through the people. Remember: There is no commoning without Peer-Governance.
- Keep Commons & Commerce Distinct - Declare Shared Purpose & Values - Set Semi-Permeable Boundaries - Assure Commoners' Consent in Decisionmaking - Relationalize Property -> add the need for Res Nullius -> Keep Property-Free Spaces - Honor Transparency in a Sphere of Trust - Respect Human Dimensions* - Share Knowledge Often & Widely - Finance Commons Provisioning -> was: Direct Capital to Commons Provisioning - Self-Monitor & Sanction Gradually*
Commons also means: breaking free of an economic empire, because commoning is generative. It produces care, shelter and all kind of things which are useful to us.
- Share the Risks of Provisioning - Make & Use Together - Pool & Share - Pool, Cap if Necessary & Divide up - Cap & Mutualize - Trade with Price-Sovereignty - Use Convivial Tools - Rely on Distributed Structures - Produce Cosmo-Locally - Creatively Adapt & Renew
ontological ground and political culture
This is the ontological ground, commons & commoning stand upon.
This framework helps us to develop a commons Vocabulary (not Taxonomy) and is the foundation of our thinking about commoning and the commons. It is imperfect and incomplete if only because the realities of the human condition ultimately elude full systemization and analysis. Despite attempts to create an "utopia of rules" (David Graeber) through bureaucracy and other systems of control, human agency is always dynamic, surprising and boundary-crossing: a case of biopoetics vs. universal systems, one might say.
- Epistemology -> How is knowledge being created, is it cognitive? Embodied? Situated knowing and diverse knowledge systems - Ubuntu-Rationality - Relational Categories
# Growing the Commons see External Politics & Culture
Political culture and polity that make commons & commoning thrive would help to Protect & Extend Value Sovereignty in the commons. Here are a few suggestions for making this happen.
- Beat the Bounds of Capitalocentrism -> was: Beat the Bounds - Emulate & Then Federate - Strengthen Commons Public Circuits - Add: Intercommoning See State Functions for Commoning - Provide Mediation & Support if Needed - Establish Discrimination Free Infrastructures
browsing this fedwiki
# Grouping Commons based on # a) Realms of Commoning In alphabetical order: Air&Atmosphere, Art&Culture, Communication, Democratic Innovation, Energy, Fisheries, Food, Forests, Health, Housing, Knowledge, Land, Learning, Mobility, Process, Spirit&Well Being, Spaces for Commoning, Technology&Tools, Water
# b) Geographic Location or Scope
Nation-States in: Africa, Asia, Americas, Australia/Oceania, Europe Beyond Nation-States: bioregional, transnational
# c) Alphabetical Listing of Projects & Initiatives
This fedwiki also provides a collection of commons- projects, initiatives and governance practices from all over the world and from different thematic areas. It might be more fun and more inspiration to have a look at these practices rather than studying concepts. We are focussing on rich&developed practices, which adress a considerable number of realms of commoning, are remarkable in terms of Provisioning through Commons and simply allow us to tell a good story while connecting their stories.
This is an alphabetical listing of important concepts we refer to in this fedwiki: abductive reasoning, abundance, bureaucracy, Complex Adaptive Systems, commoner, commonism, conviviality, federation, freedom, governance, innovation, inter-commoning, interdependency, Market-State, mutualization, patterns instead of principles, paradigm shift, permacircularity, polycentricity, power, radical monopoly, reciprocity, self-organization, symmathesy, systems, swaraj, transcontextuality, transformation, transition, utilitas publica, value sovereignity, vision, wealth, wholeness
# Related Sites in our fedwiki
Conceptual Notes template, MakeCommoningWork template, Governance Practices template, Notes to David, Notes to Silke, Term Dropping, Book Title, Unresolved Questions, The Five Stars, The Radar Chart, Foto Transporter, Preface Notes, Tech Questions, The Book, Design Principles for Commons Institutions and How To Govern, esthetics and style, Markdown Syntax