Silke Helfrich, www.commonstrategies.org
Paper prepared for AFD Conference: Communs et Développement; Paris, Dec. 1 & 2, 2016
CONTENT:
I. Clarify Concepts: State and Commons
- The State doesn’t exist
- … and the Nation-State is a conceptual fiction
- Commons enact their own normalcies
- Commons belong to different people. People belong to multiple commons
- A commoner is to the commons as a citizen is to the state
II. Tensions between State Power and Commoning
- State powers arise from separation, the power of the commons arises from connection
- A State is committed to market logic, the commons go beyond it
- State-centric thinking makes the commons and thus commons governance invisible
- Who cares for what State powers ignore?
III. Reimagining state powers from a commons perspective
- Four Approaches to the State in the Commons Debate
- Deepen democracy beyond token participation
- Consent over consensus decision making
- Reimagine the terms of community
- Tax the use of shared resources
- Shift power from (Nation-)States to Bioregional Territories
- Create Public Commons Partnerships (PCPs)
IV. Back to the Beginning
-> Go to State and Commons for AFD
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