Crossing the divide: an integrated framework of the commons

Abstract

The idea of the commons is a long-standing concept referring to anything that are held in common, ranging from tangible resources to intangible cultures, as well as the institutional welfare, and it concerns both inter-generational sustainability and intra-generational equity. However, recent discussions tend to restrict the concept of the commons to the physical resources, separating intangible cultures and institutional welfare as external settings. Indeed, commonly shared natural resources, institutional public goods and cultural sentiments reinforce each other by constructing the very meaning of the commons as something shared by all. This paper explores this important subject from a philosophical and theoretical perspective; searches for the commons from its philosophical origins; and investigates the concept of the commons, respectively, in three schools: the school of tangible commons of physical resources, the school of institutional commons of welfare, security and public goods, and the school of intangible commons of culture, identity and social capital. The paper provides an integrated framework to incorporate all the commons for analysing specific case, without externalizing any as exogenous factor. Nevertheless, a study of human behaviour requires holistic understanding of people, nature and the culture under specific sociocultural settings.