Definition
The commons comprise all the shared wealth in which a community or the society has a strong interest. The commons are resources which belong to everybody in common, meaning that are not owned privately. No one has an exclusive right to them, making the commons, by definition, resources to which everybody enjoys open access, according to different sets of rules or regulations. These resources of shared interest must be protected and/or improved, and no one has exclusive right to them. The commons may include cultural and natural resources. The commons can also be understood as natural resources that groups of people (communities, user groups) manage for individual and collective benefit. The guiding principles underlying the philosophy of commons can be transposed to different realms; it is not limited to environmental spaces. Data and urban areas can be counted as new spaces of the commons.
Introduction
The commons consist of shared wealth which is important for people to...
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Freitas, F. (2019). Spaces of the Commons. In: Leal Filho, W., Azul, A., Brandli, L., Özuyar, P., Wall, T. (eds) Sustainable Cities and Communities. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71061-7_85-1
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