The Commons in History: Culture, Conflict, and Ecology

174 Pages·2014·1.011 MB·English

by  Derek Wall

The Commons in History
History for a Sustainable Future
Michael Egan, series editor
Derek Wall, The Commons in History: Culture, Conflict, and Ecology
Frank Uekötter, The Greenest Nation? A New History of German
Environmentalism
The Commons in History
Culture, Conflict, and Ecology

Derek Wall

The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
© 2014 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or
mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval)
without permission in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wall, Derek.
The commons in history : culture, conflict, and ecology / Derek Wall.
p. cm.—(History for a sustainable future)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-262-02721-2 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-262-32201-0 (retail e-book)
1. Commons—History. I. Title.
HD1286.W34 2014
333.2—dc23
2013032414
To Emily Blyth and Amanda Penfold
What we need to question is bricks, concrete, glass, our table manners, our
utensils, our tools, the way we spend our time, our rhythms. To question that which
seems to have ceased forever to astonish us. We live, true, we breathe, true; we
walk, we go downstairs, we sit at a table in order to eat, we lie down on a bed in
order to sleep. How? Where? When? Why?
Describe your street. Describe another. Compare.
—Georges Perec, L’Infra-ordinaire (1989)
Contents
Foreword
Acknowledgments
1 Commons Ecology
Overview
Commons, Sustainability, and Environmental History
What Is the Commons?
Contested Commons
The Tragedy of the Commons
Commons as a Solution
Commons History: England, Mongolia, and India
Successful Commons
Ecologically Failed Commons
2 Culture in Common?
Commons as an Economic Solution
Culture as a Means of Conservation
Culture versus Economics
The Gift Economy
Contested Cultures
Misreading the Cultural Commons
3 Commons in Conflict
The Assault on the Commons
Enclosure and Colonization
Ecological Imperialism
The Radical Case for the Commons
Conflicted Commons
Commons, Conflict, and Gender
Continuing Commons
4 Questions for Good Ancestors
How Do We Research the Commons?
How Can the Commons Sustain the Environment?
How Do We Socially Share?
How Do We Fight the Crab?
How Do We Love the Land?
Before Time People
Notes
Selected Readings on the Commons
Index
Foreword
Michael Egan
Derek Wall’s The Commons in History: Culture, Conflict, and Ecology
inaugurates a new series from the MIT Press. “History for a Sustainable
Future” is predicated on the idea that scholars, publics, and policymakers
need to be conscious of the historical contexts of contemporary
environmental problems to understand their social, political, economic,
and ecological contexts. Resolving local and global environmental
quandaries requires careful thought and planning, and future success
depends on a deep appreciation of the past. This is the point of the series:
we can learn from past mistakes, but more important, solving the
environmental crisis demands the best information available, and history
provides valuable insights into the creation and proliferation of the
environmental ills we hope to curb.
Fittingly, the commons in history is a good departure point for this
series for two reasons. First, the commons constitutes one of the oldest
stories of human interaction with the physical environment. The
collective use of land and extraction of resources has been engrained in
human activities since before history was written down. Second, this
story possesses critical contemporary relevance for helping us to move
toward a more sustainable future. As Wall notes in his introduction to
this book, understanding property rights is essential for understanding
sustainability. How we use, share, close off, and open up the land and its
resources offers insights into how we value the environment, the
economy, and each other. And by applying an historical lens to how the
commons have evolved over time and across space, Wall reads a method
of engaging with the future.