Think Like a Commoner, Second Edition: A Short Introduction to the Life of the Commons

Welcome to the Commonsverse, a parallel social economy helping millions of commoners take charge and escape the predatory Market/State order.

This completely revised and updated edition of Think Like a Commoner offers a succinct yet thorough account of the history and future of the commons.

Working outside of both market capitalism and state power, commoners are deeply committed to developing local, practical solutions, social trust, and community. From relocalized agriculture to open-source learning, diverse types of commons -- ecological, social, digital, urban -- are building a decentralized Commonsverse. This parallel economy is powered by the peer governance of shared wealth; respectful engagement with the Earth; participation; and fairness.

Widely respected activist and scholar David Bollier explores the full scope of the commons in contemporary life, including:

• A survey of successful commons initiatives, from shared land and water, to digital commons, mutual aid networks, alternative currencies, cohousing, and more
• The centuries-old cultural traditions, Indigenous practices, and historical folkways that gave rise to the modern commons Commons under siege - how enclosures of shared wealth through trade treaties, copyright and trademark law, commodification, privatization, and outright theft are dispossessing commoners and worsening inequality
• Understanding the commons as a profoundly relational, living social organism that itself generates value.

The Commonsverse is a dynamic, evolving socio-political space that is constantly being reimagined and rebuilt. Driven forward by worldwide networks of traditionalists and innovators working collaboratively outside of mainstream institutions, commoning constitutes a quiet revolution of real, functional alternatives. Pull up a chair, relax, and let’s talk about the commons.

David Bollier is an American activist and scholar who studies the commons as a new paradigm for re-imagining economics, politics, and culture. He has been Director of the Reinventing the Commons Program at the Schumacher Center for a New Economics (USA) since 2016, and frequently collaborates with an international network of brilliant irregulars. He blogs at Bollier.org, hosts the podcast Frontiers of Commoning, and has written ten books on the commons, including The Commoner’s Catalog for Changemaking, Patterns of Commoning, The Wealth of the Commons, and, with Silke Helfrich, Free, Fair and Alive. Bollier lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.