The Commons in an Age of Uncertainty: Decolonizing Nature, Economy, and Society
© 2020
In the last two hundred years, the earth has increasingly become the private property of a few classes, races, transnational corporations, and nations. Repeated claims about the "tragedy of the commons" and the "crisis of capitalism" have done little to explain this concentration of land, encourage solution-building to solve resource depletion, or address our current socio-ecological crisis.
The Commons in an Age of Uncertainty presents a new explanation, vision, and action plan based on the idea of commoning the land. The book argues that by commoning the land, rather than privatising it, we can develop the foundation for prosperity without destructive growth and address both local and global challenges. Making the land the most fundamental priority of all commons does not only give hope, it also opens the doors to a new world in which economy, environment, and society are decolonised and liberated.
Product Details
- World Rights
- Page Count: 280 pages
- Dimensions: 6.1in x 1.0in x 9.2in
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Reviews
"The Commons in an Age of Uncertainty is a remarkable scholarly reflection on the features of the actual economy most neglected by what has become standard economic theory. Most important, perhaps, is the renewal of a focus on land, which is a unique form of capital. It may help to overcome the scandalous neglect of Henry George, which has made the dominance of neoliberal economic theory, so much preferred by transnational corporations, possible."
John B. Cobb, Jr., American theologian, philosopher, environmentalist, and faculty co-director (Emeritus), The Center for Process Studies"Rejecting both Conventional Wisdom and Western Left Consensus discourses about the Commons, Obeng-Odoom skillfully articulates a third way: The Radical Alternative. Weaving together concepts such as rent theft, just land, and the Global South, he argues passionately for a Just Ecological Political Economy."
Julian Agyeman, Tufts University, author of Introducing Just Sustainabilities: Policy, Planning and Practice -
Author Information
Franklin Obeng-Odoom is associate professor of Sustainability Science at the University of Helsinki. -
Table of contents
Preface
Part A - The Problem
1. The Conventional Wisdom, Western Consensus, and the Radical AlternativePart B - Contestations and Recontextualisation
2. Historical Debates on the Commons
3. Rethinking the CommonsPart C - Empirical Proof
4. Cities
5. Technology
6. Oil
7. WaterPart D - The Future of the Commons
8. Concluding Remarks: Towards a New Ecological Political Economy:Bibliography
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Subjects and Courses
