International Journal of the Commons (Feb 2024)
The Incompatibility of the Commons and the Public
Abstract
In this essay I consider the conceptual conflict between the public as a modern political category and the idea of the commons. By linking the idea of the public to an early exposition that explicitly sought a distinction between the commons and the public, I show how the generalization inherent in the public contravenes the particularity of the commons. This poses important political problems for how a modern commons or a modern notion of the commons is conceived and also allows for a nuanced understanding of the political challenge posed against the commons itself.
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