Commons

Yearbook

Cooperativism and Self-management in Italy

The discussion and the movement underway around the issue of the commons – common goods is the term used in Italy – benefits from knowing something of its prehistory. This is particularly true for our country. Indeed, if in Italy, too, the organisational model of the left was based on the primacy of...

The Greek Water Referendum and the Distinction Between Public and Common Goods

The last decade in Western Europe has seen a dynamic of remunicipalisation in the water and energy sectors that is part of a global trend.1 Especially in the water sector, one municipality after another is reapropriating water and sanitation management as contracts with private companies expire. In...

The Commons and Global Sustainable Information Society (GSIS)

The age of global challenges The information age is the age of the societies into which industrialised societies are transforming, as seen in the spread of new information and communication technologies (ICTs), just as the industrial age is the age of the societies into which agricultural...

Care Revolution: A Feminist-Marxist Transformation Strategy from the Perspective of Caring for Each Other

Concern for one’s own wellbeing is as essential to human existence as concern for others. Beginning with, and especially at, birth, people are dependent on the care of others, without which they could not survive. But also beyond childhood and youth, and beyond times of illness and frailty, people...

Mutualism Between Tradition and Modernity [1]

One of the most important trade-union and political leaders of the Italian labour movement, Vittorio Foa (1910-2008), explained the reason for his study on the birth of the labour movement, both Italian and European, at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century by ‘the need for a calm and objective...

The Common: An Essay on the 21st-Century Revolution

Our point of departure is that the common is a principle of political activity constituted by the specific activity of deliberation, judgement, decision, and the implementation of decisions. However, this and the fuller definition we present at the beginning of our book1 does not claim to be...

Towards a Society of the Commons[1]

The re-emergence of the commons For much of the history of industrial and post-industrial capitalism, political conflict has been between state and market, the issue being whether to use state mechanisms for the regulation of the excesses of market players and for redistribution or, conversely, to...

A Renaissance of Industrial Policy in the EU: The Challenge for the European Left

The EU’s continuing financial and economic crisis, which began in 2008, has shifted the focus of political debates at the European Commission and the European Parliament (EP) towards the importance of industry. This article outlines the European Commission’s and the European Parliament’s approaches...

Twofold Transformation: Strategic Challenges for the Left

The origins of transformation: The Great French Revolution and the Declaration of Human and Civil Rights All of us, whether we are we are politically on the left or the right, act in the light cast by the Great French Revolution of 1789. All concepts we employ the world over, including those of...

A political vision for the Commons*

The concept of common good has been increasingly present in class struggles. Could this reference to the concept of ‘the Commons’ lay the groundwork for a political project that surpasses ownership? One could think so given the many discussion seminars currently taking place on the subject. The...

The European Citizens’ Initiative on Water and ‘Austeritarian’ Post-Democracy

In times of savage austerity, strategies to privatise public services are multiplying.

Fluid Democracy: The Italian Water Revolution

From Commons to the referendum

Knowledge Is a Common Good

The Effects of the Open Source Movement on the Development of Politics and Society

Focus

The Right to the City. Urban Commons and Sustainable Cities

Due to the local character of most Commons initiatives it’s obvious that cities are preferred places. From social housing to urban gardening to digital citizenship to public cultural spaces to educational initiatives to healthcare-centres to direct farmers-consumers-cooperatives to workers’...

A Pathway to a Decent Life for All of Us. Remarks on the Theoretical Context and Vision of The Common Good of Humanity

The question of property is central to all left politics from its (organised) beginnings in the nineteenth century until today. The private appropriation and exploitation of labour, resources, and nature are the driving forces in capitalism.

The Concept of 'Common' – Towards an Economic and Social Democracy

It appears increasingly obvious that the concept of the Common can provide a framework for a left alternative project embracing the questions of social and economic democracy and ecology. Read an introduction on the concept of the Common and conference report by Roberto Morea.

Blog

Resume of the Water Project 2018

transform! europe supports the Water Project, organised by the Fundació l'Alternativa, to contribute through debate and reflection to the democratic impulse of decision-making in the management of water by the municipalities, promoting sustainable territorial planning, making use of green energies and proposing new forms of management of commons.

Common ownership of the means of production is dead. Let’s think beyond property: An Economy of Commons

Common ownership of the means of production never works. At the size of an enterprise (co-operatives), it excludes those who are not members and therefore appears to be private. At the size of a country, it generates a huge bureaucracy which excludes those - citizens, workers - which are the legal...

The Earth is the Common Home of All Inhabitants

The Earth has never been a "common home". Today, it is even less so. Yet the possibilities of building the Earth as a "common home" are greater than before. Why?

The Concept of ‘The Common’

For some years, transform! europe is promoting a research project, networking and exchange of experiences on common goods and proposing a discussion on the political level. A working group meeting was held at the summer uni of EL and transform! in Vienna. Read the result of the discussion, which, hopefully, can open a wider debate and participation

Social commons. Social Justice. System change

Declaration, adopted at the Asia Europe People's Forum social justice cluster conference, Barcelona 8 to 10 June 2018, in cooperation with transform! europe.

Building Red-Green Alternatives: Can Commons Challenge Neoliberalism from Below?

The sixth Transform!Danmark Conference, focusing on the development of left economic and ecological alternatives, took place in Copenhagen on 18 March. Once again, it focused on sustainable and fair transformation, as well as a changing society in Europe and around the world.

‘Reinventing Law for the Commons’

Nicos Poulantzas Institute in cooperation with transform! europe organized an open lecture of David Bollier, researcher, activist and writer of a series of books concerning Commons. Find here the short report of the event on 14 February.

Copyright versus Community

As a continuation of NPI’s research work on ‘commons’, an open event was organized in Athens on 11 April in cooperation with transform! europe. The speech was given by Dr. Richard Stallman under the title ‘Copyright vs. Community’.

Production and Commons Workshop

Activists and social researchers from across Europe discussed concrete ways to overcome the capitalist organization of production through commoning and factory workers’ self-management.

Applied Policies on ‘Common Goods’: Results, Experiences and Future Goals

Short report of an open event and a set of seminars on common goods, peer-to-peer modes of production and cooperative economy, organised by the Nicos Poulantzas Institute in Athens from 8 to 13 November.

Socialization and Commons in Europe: How to Build an Alternative?

What does the notion of commons mean? Can it bring about the unity of struggles as diverse – in appearance – as those for free water, for the safeguarding of public services, against tuition fees, for workers’ self-management initiatives, against huge construction projects, for the migrants’ right to stay in their country of residence or against privatization of public squares?

Promoting the social commons

Sustaining the planet, preparing the future, building another world … this daunting task for current generations is also a promising manifestation of care for the future of humankind and of nature.

Publication

Socialisation and Commons in Europe

We present our first transform! eBook, which deals with the promising topic of the Commons. It is a reiteration of the essential discussions held during a European seminar in Paris in November 2014. You can download the eBook in EPUB (for eBook readers) and PDF format (for printing and everything else) on the right.

Calendar

Copyright Against Community

Nicos Poulantzas Institute and transform! europe are co-hosting the event on 11 April with Richard Stallman, President of the Free Software Foundation (FSF), as keynote speaker.

Commons

Yearbook

Focus

Blog

Publication

Calendar

Tags