Common goods

Abstract

The concepts of common goods, commons, communal goods, and other similar notions, have become ubiquitous in current political philosophy. The debate has (re)emerged especially among economists, but has also been active within legal theory, sociology and philosophy. As a result, many senses of commons or common goods have arisen, giving place to different traditions. Hereafter I will draft a modest conceptual map of the commons-theories. I will expose the main political and conceptual tensions throughout which these theories oscillate and I will outline the principal areas where both the theory and the practice of commons have been most successful. I will end with a distinction of five different commons-conceptions.