Joining People with Things. The Commons and Environmental Sociology

Abstract

The theme of the commons has long been discussed, with a variety of meanings. The chapter addresses basic questions and approaches from an environmental sociology perspective. It first looks at the origins of the debate, marked by Hardin’s seminal article and Ostrom’s path-breaking research. Second, it deals with discussions associated with the global order and its crisis, where the notion of ‘commoning’ gains relevance. Third, it considers the new commons, as directly or indirectly related with knowledge. Fourth, it reviews the question of old and new enclosures and deals with legal scholars’ debate over the commons. The last section suggests that the human-nonhuman connection is crucial to the commons, yet it has to be considered in the context of current processes of value extraction.