David Bollier and Carroll Muffett

David Bollier, a leading international activist and scholar of the commons, will describe and seek the audience's thoughts about how a paradigm of commons- and rights-based ecological governance can move us beyond the threadbare policy proposals that dominate mainstream thinking.

 

As the title of his new book suggests, neither "free market" nor state-centered approaches are leading to "sustainable development," food sovereignty, human (or gender) rights, environmental stewardship, or a stop to global warming. In this seminar, Bollier will describe the growing number of social movements and initiatives around the world that are using the commons to pioneer effective, ecologically new approaches.

 

Instead of the state simply helping the “Market Sector” privatize and commodify resources for global commerce, why shouldn’t it become a partner of the "Commons Sector"? Bollier asks: If the state can charter corporations and support markets, ostensibly to advance the public interest, why should it not also support commons-based innovations, such as free and open source software; the re-localization of food sources; regimes that protect indigenous cultures; and community control over fisheries, forests and water?

 

He will seek your ideas about these and other innovations and ways that policy analysis and political action might use the commons paradigm to challenge the prevailing neoliberal policy agenda and build new sorts of North/South and ecological/digital solidarity.

 

 

David Bollier is the co-founder of the Commons Strategies Group and co-founder and board member (2001-2011) of Public Knowledge, a Washington policy advocacy organization dedicated to protecting the information commons. In addition to the co-edited volume being launched at this event, The Wealth of the Commons, Bollier is co-author of the just-released book Green Governance: Ecological Survival, Human Rights and the Commons (Cambridge University Press). Bollier lives in Amherst, MA, and blogs at Bollier.org.

Carroll Muffett is President and CEO of the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL). Prior to joining CIEL, Carroll served as Executive Director of the Climate Law & Policy Project and Deputy Campaigns Director at Greenpeace USA, where he was instrumental in the organization's campaigns on global warming, forests and other issues. From 2000 to 2006, Carroll was international counsel and Senior Director for International Conservation at Defenders of Wildlife. Previously, he was an attorney with Covington and Burling.

 

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