Green politics and the republican commons
Citation: Derek Wall (2014) Green politics and the republican commons. Community Development Journal (RSS)
DOI (original publisher): 10.1093/cdj/bsu003
Semantic Scholar (metadata): 10.1093/cdj/bsu003
Sci-Hub (fulltext): 10.1093/cdj/bsu003
Internet Archive Scholar (search for fulltext): Green politics and the republican commons
Download: http://cdj.oxfordjournals.org/content/49/suppl 1/i81.full
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Summary
"Vincent Ostrom's work provides a link between both the study of the commons and republican constitution making and a way of understanding the link between green politics and republicanism. While insititutionalist and autonomist Marxist conceptions of the commons can be contrasted, they both drew upon a republican tradition of self-government, which can be contrasted with either a centrally planned system or an anarchist rejection of all governance."
Conclusion: "Common pool property has been seen as contributing to the goals of the green movement broadly defined. There are number of different ways of conceptualizing the commons; however, I would argue the approach of Vincent and Elinor Ostrom is of value, for several reasons, from a green politics perspective. The Ostroms shared a number of key normative values with the green movement including sustainability and decentralization. Elinor, in particular, undertook detailed empirical research into the commons, along with social-ecological systems, which should inspire practical policy making. The Ostroms' work reminds us that commoning can be understood as part of a broader civic republican tradition. Yet while there has been increased interested in both civic republicanism and green republicanism, the Ostrom's observation that political science should be practical craft is an important and often over looked insight. As Vincent Ostrom might well have said broad statements of political intent mean very little, the puzzle and practice of how to specifically make governance work, ecologically and democratically, is what matters."
