Thinking about the Commons

This article explores current developments in theoretical thinking about the commons. It keys off contemporary reconsiderations of Garret Hardin’s “Tragedy of the Commons” and Elinor Ostrom’s response to Hardin in Governing the Commons and later work. Hardin’s idea of a “tragedy” has received much criticism, especially from Ostrom herself; but Ostrom’s own work has also raised some questions in more recent commons literature. The key issue that emerges from this reconsideration revolves around the understanding of commons on the one hand as limited common regimes, central to Ostrom’s work, or on the other hand as open access, as espoused by more recent advocates of widespread access to information and communications networks.