Frontiers of Commoning, with David Bollier

Katherine Gibson, a Professor at the Institute for Culture and Society, explores the Community Economies Research Network's journey towards a post-capitalist future. She discusses transformative local economic practices like care work and cooperatives, challenging capitalocentrism. Gibson highlights the network's growth to nearly 280 members, focusing on inclusivity and the impacts of colonialism. The conversation also bridges research and action, calling for ethical collaboration and a rethinking of economic language, with insights from feminist theory.

Andreas Weber, a theoretical biologist and ecophilosopher, challenges conventional views on life by emphasizing its subjective aliveness. He discusses the importance of relational webs, suggesting that life operates as a commons, fostering symbiotic connections. Weber critiques the competitive interpretations rooted in Darwinism and Victorian capitalism, advocating for an interconnected approach to evolution. He introduces concepts like 'erotic ecology,' highlighting love's role in ecosystems and calls for a shift towards nurturing relationships in our ecological interactions.

Jimmy Buff, Executive Director of WKNY Radio in Kingston, NY, explains how he and a team of local talent converted an oldies-format AM radio station into a vibrant community broadcaster. The station features the usual blocs of rock, pop, and classical (with slots for polka and German music, too!), but also voices from the LGBTQ world, seniors, people of color, feminists, local artists, mindfulness practitioners, environmentalists, and businesspeople -- all with a local perspective..

Severine von Tscharner Fleming is a young organic farmer who helped start Agrarian Trust, an organization supporting land access for the next generation of farmers. Ian McSweeney, the organizational director of Agrarian Trust, explains strategies for decommodifying land for farmers even as the pandemic drives up land prices. Also discussed: Greenhorns, a cultural network for young farmers; Farm Hack, a global design community for open source farm equipment; and Seaweed Commons, a network studying the stewardship of intertidal zones.

For Dave Jacke, a designer of ecological landscapes and lead author of the classic book 'Edible Forest Gardens,' the key to how humanity will navigate its future on Earth lies with our culture and "inner landscapes," as refracted through our technologies. Paradoxically, the extreme underdevelopment of Western culture, psychosocially, is a reason for hope, he argues. If humanity truly were advanced while facing so many planetary challenges, "we’d be screwed." Fortunately, we have so much room to grow in self-awareness, and ecological design can help us learn to co-evolve abundant landscapes once again.

Janelle Orsi, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Sustainable Economies Law Center, in Oakland, California, is an accomplished practitioner of creative legal hacks. She and her colleagues at the Law Center focus on ingenious ways to decommodify land to keep housing and farmland affordable; to empower peer governance and give people control over their lives; and to provide legal structures that help people acquire greater security by "surrendering into each other's arms." Orsi and the Law Center are at the forefront of the kinds of innovative lawyering needed to build a more just, eco-friendly, localized and humane world.

Marcos García is Artistic Director of Medialab-Prado in Madrid, Spain -- an independent, city-funded 'commons laboratory' that facilitates bottom-up innovation on various tech platforms. As a commons incubator, Medialab-Prado actively facilitates the formation of new communities of experimental, collaborative practice in such diverse fields as citizen science, participatory budgeting, data visualization, open source software, Wikipedia entries, and book translations, among many others.

Neera Singh, a geographer from the University of Toronto, shares her insights on community forests in India. She highlights how the emotional connections individuals have with their land lead to healthier forests than corporate management. Singh discusses the resilience of Odisha's communities fighting against bureaucratic mismanagement and the importance of the Forest Rights Act in balancing legal and traditional practices. Ultimately, she advocates for a care-based approach to environmental stewardship that honors local governance and biocultural heritage.

Drawing on their worldwide work with schools, tech ventures, and other projects and organizations, Ted Rau (left) and Jerry Koch-Gonzalez, Cofounders of Sociocracy for All, explain how Sociocracy provides a fair, effective, commons-based system of deliberation and decisionmaking.