These podcasts are keyed to my syllabus, "The Rise of the Commons," under the "Commons Resources" dropdown menu above. Weeks 1 and 2 will be posted shortly. Here, Week 3, provides an overview of the philsophy behind private property rights, the fallacies of the "tragedy of the commons," and the moral and social dynamics of gift-exchange within communities. Below, John Locke.
A review of medieval commons, Peter Linebaugh's history of Magna Carta, and Karl Polanyi's The Great Transformation.
A survey of modern enclosures as described by Bollier in Silent Theft; the human implicatiions of making resources alienable for market use; and an introduction to Elinor Ostrom's Governing the Commons. Extra credit: Agnes Varda's film, The Gleaners and I. Below, Elinor Ostrom and I at a community conference in Bloomington, Indiana.
A look at property rights as applied to land and water, and how certain commons-based approaches such as New Mexican acequias avoid the adverse consequences of market enclosure. Readings by Eric Freyfogle, Maude Barlow, Adam Davidson-Harden and Jose A. Rivera.
Peter Barnes has been a pioneering thinker about how stakeholder trusts might be used to manage the atmosphere more equitably and effectively. Readings from Barnes' Who Owns the Sky? and Capitalism 3.0: A Guide to Reclaiming the Commons.
The copyright wars against the public domain and fair use have been raging for more than 20 years now. A review of its harm to culture and its general dynamics. Readings by William Patry, David Bollier, and James Beesen/Michael J. Meurer, and a DVD by Carrie McLaren.
The end-to-end principles of the Internet and its shared protocols constitute a vital infrastructure for creating countless online commons. This lecture gives a brief overview of this history, with readings by Lawrence Lessig, Richard Stallman, Eben Moglen, David Bollier, Elinor Ostrom and Charlotte Hess.
The Internet infrastructure, the GPL for software and the Creative Commons licenses have enabled the rise of rich new genres of collaborative creativity, from shared archives and wikis to remix music and the blogosphere. This lecture looks at the "Great Value Shift" catalyzed by distributed media, with readings by Yochai Benkler, Michel Bauwens, David Bolier and a DVD by Kembrew McLeod.
One of the more troubling market enclosures of the past generation is the croporate colonization of academia and its research. We review Jennifer Washburn's University Inc., and selected chapters from Bollier's Silent Theft and Viral Spiral.
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