Monday, January 9, 2012
Common Property as Social Institutions for Resource Management
Commons is an attitude; a worldview. A worldview that instills a strong sense of responsibility towards our surroundings and our future. There is also a danger here: the logic of commons is understood and internalised by the members of commons and not outsiders. In other words, worldviews are still not shared worldviews with wider world. What is required to transcend this?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
9 comments:
Very agreeable that commons is an attitude - successful management of commons happens when people adopt a certain frame of mind. But one cannot be certain that members of the commons have internalised the logic of the commons or even understood it. Collective action in management of commons offers certain benefits and it may be that people become members simply because they have come to appreciate these benefits. If there comes a time when these benefits become scarce, that would be the test of who has truly internalised the logic of commons and who is simply a 'rational benefit seeker'. -Pankaj Kela
A shared worldview is necessary for preservation of commons. The internalisation of the concept can be transcended if people develop sensitivity towards the needs of others. Like individuals, the common property needs to be given its due respect. Imposition of norms, rules, and institutions can work positively to a certain extent, but beyond a limit it is morality at play. Sooner or later, a feeling of mutual respect becomes a requirement.
Arshia Gupta
Commons is an attitude that needs to be inculcated. Many a times the current benefit is the sole cause of sharing property as commons. The people must be made aware of the wider logic of commons as a worldwide view that would not only help us make the best of the available scarce resources but would also help us maintain the resources so that it can serve us for a longer time. Once this is the point of view with which the internal and externals agents perceive commons, it can be regarded as an attitude rather than just a principle.
Kireet Pande
The thing is how a person defines and perceives 'world' for himself. He works for the common with a sense of responsibility towards it constructing boundaries of his common and its members. It becomes important to transcend from the perception of belonging to a world which has limitations to a world where 'we' is seen as a lager global group holding sensitivity towards everyone and everything around. It must be internalized that all individual commons are a part of a greater 'common’; the world, where everyone becomes a member and holds responsibility for it.Anusha Pant
There can never be an institution, thought or idea which is shared by and believed in by all. There have to be some people who believe in it, while some who don't. So, focusing on an all-inclusive world is never possible or desirable. Instead, what one should aim is that those who are part of it or believe in it give their best to make it a success. If that's done, the tragedy of the commons will be taken care of. -ankush khanna
To have the shared worldviews with wider world is a daunting task just because a strong sense of responsibility towards the commons cannot be inculcated in outsiders unless the members of the commons don't accept them as the user of the commons with them. Once the insider outsider difference reduces and a common sense of responsibility as well as usage is shared among them this problem of not sharing the worldviews with wider world can be transcended.
Worldview can be understood as the collection of ideas and beliefs through which an individual or group interprets and interacts with its environment. Commons is also a worldview which brings sense of belongingness and responsibility towards the surroundings generally understood and shared by internal stakeholders. Appreciation of logic of common by outsiders would render the concerned common property as social institutions for efficient and sustainable management of resource. To transcend the worldview beyond the level of members and change the orientation of outsiders would require their sensitisation towards the beliefs of insiders and importance of the resource.
Ashish (32010)
It is certainly true that worldviews are still not shared with wider world. So it is very essential that benefits of commons must be communicated outside also, so that they not only get motivation from this but also can help commons according to their capabilities. It must be started from the insiders, that commons does not belong to them only, rather it has much wider scope. They should treat resource as effective means of collaboration with outsiders, only then worldview can be achieved.
Nilesh Sharma(32080)
Pankaj forgot that there are not only full utilitarians in a collective action but also many more motivations for people to join a collective and it is of immense importance that we understand other motivations in collective action as well.
Post a Comment