Topic: Privatizing of the Commons
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Hey, all:
Considering the names, there is a distinction to be made between "conservation" and "preventing privatization" of the Commons, so Frank's suggestion is a valid one. Conservation focuses on management of Commons so they remain intact and sustainable, and is generally a local function, but can apply global principles. It is also, however, a global effort for global Commons such as air and water. Privatization is mostly a trend, and an action on economic, legal, and political grounds by old men in suits, and can occur thousands of miles away, without those involved in conservation having a clue that it is happening. Having the Commons "rug" being pulled out from under you and your entire culture can be the result. The same result can happen in the public educational field. Intellectual Commons is part of the mix, but is certainly less classically understood as a Commons. It is also a major part of the threat of privatization, so to me it and the need to recognize "Privatization of the Commons" should be considered for a valid AofF. Commons are under threat due to many factors, including human overpopulation, the Corporate Oligarchy searching for commodities to control and markets to profit from, and the deterioration of Commons due to lack of attention to their needs. All these are valid reasons to focus on Commons here on WE. In fact, it is essential for success. David Messages done with sustainable energy, with Wind and Sun! |
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The Commons typically invites images of pastures and oceans, so it's important to talk about intellectual commons. Thanks for the post, it's an interesting question, especially regarding the corrupting pressure on pure research by short-sighted marketeers. "Questioning" does not turn the sale of intellectual commons into a market but the sale of ideas comprising the intellectual commons may do just that (addressing a point of grammatical confusion in your post, Frank : ). What negative effect does the commodification of ideas generated by academia have on universities' intellectual climates?
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There is a "Conservation of the Commons" aof: http://wiserearth.org/aof/773, does this meet what you're looking for?
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Questioning the sale of public universities intellectual commons by corporations attempt to turn it into a market - not to exclude in the discussion the commons of water, the sea, sun and plant life, the commons that is this planet.
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Privatization really is what is behind it. Before our very eyes we are seeing the commons of the air being marketized, without even a whimper.
Once you commodify something that was once a commons, what do you do?
There is a glairing example of returning a market back to a commons, which once had been a big market here in this country. Slavery. That’s right the commons of human beings, was turned into a market and vasts parts of this country depended on that market based slavery economy. We normally don’t think in those terms, when discussing slavery, but bottom line, that’s what it was, turning a commons into a market.
I hope that makes it very clear how “market forces” really work. There are no morals or values or externality considered in “free markets”, none. It kind of like free markets gone wild always has, my example of slavery is an extreme example, BUT I consider the carbon credit scam right up there with the best of the free market scams.
Here’s the rub, as “traditional markets” get used up or saturated, it becomes dependent upon speculators to create new ones and one of the easy places they can go to create them… the commons.