ORGANIZERS


Onshirin Regional Public Organization

Research Institute for Humanity and Nature

International Association for the Study of the Commons

REGISTRATION OFFICE

c/o Convention Linkage, Inc.
Sanbancho KS Bldg.
2 Sanbancho, Chiyoda-ku
Tokyo 102-0075, Japan
Phone: +81-3-3263-8695
Fax: +81-3-3263-8693
Email: info@iasc2013.org

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS OF PANELS, PAPERS, POSTERS AND VIDEOS

Naturally, the IASC welcomes proposals for panels, papers, and posters on all topics related to the commons, but the location of this meeting in Japan and on Mount Fuji, as well as the sponsorship by commoners who themselves have struggled to maintain their commons through 150 years of regime change, economic transformation, and political assault suggests certain themes for emphasis, reflected in the conference title, “Commoners and the Changing Commons: Livelihoods, Environmental Security, and Shared Knowledge.” Japan’s role in having a long history with well-documented management of commons, in maintaining these commons while becoming a technologically sophisticated economic power, and its recent confrontation with both natural disaster and energy crisis also move us to highlight certain themes, though of course as always there are no limitations on the geographic coverage of the meeting.

The Kita Fuji conference will be a wonderful opportunity to consider the economic and social functions of commons with very long history as they move through the processes of legal change, industrialization, and urbanization. Do commons assist commoners or their societies in the process of economic change? How do the economic and social contributions from common resources change through the process of economic development? What environmental services and amenities do protected commons contribute to the society around them as industrialization proceeds?

We can also look at the contemporary functions of commons in affluent post-industrialism. If commoners in developing countries protect their commons during economic development, what will they end up with and what does the commons do – and not do -- for them? What is the role of commons in urbanized areas? Do industrialization and new technologies in an affluent society create demand for new kinds of commons? The history of the commons as well as current events around the world encourage us to consider the importance of protest as a tool for expressing collective dissent and exerting influence on outcomes.

Nowhere in the world are commons protected through sheer luck; resource users and beneficiaries of commons must always mobilize to protect their commons. What factors influence the tactics and strategies that seem most successful? What advice can commoners with successful experience offer to others involved in more formative struggles? We might also ask if this experience at mobilizing and managing shared resources creates a capacity to cooperate with some bearing on response to crisis. Does historical experience building social capital through the management of common-pool resources improve the resilience of communities and their resource base in dealing with high variability in the natural environment or with human-made crises? In turn, what does recurrent crisis do to the commons? Finally, our international meetings are always an occasion for examining global commons – resources that require joint effort of all or most peoples and in affect all or most peoples. Do rising concerns about global challenges offer new purposes and value to local commons? Can local commons contribute usefully to changing energy profiles or enhanced sustainability of local economies? Can local commons help us in meeting or reducing our need for energy, with constructive impact on global climate change?

New global commons include some that have the non-rival or non-subtractable character of pure public goods rather than the subtractable or rival qualities of common-pool goods. Although the institutions for managing these goods would have to be different in some ways, cooperation to solve the inherent collective action problems in both is necessary.

Does historical experience with cooperation to manage local common-pool goods offer useful guidance for building institutions for managing new commons, whether digital, genetic, biophysical, or cultural?

Of course, as a meeting with special emphasis on the commoners, who in the case of a global conference are the participants who attend the meeting, we welcome all proposals. But the Program Committee would like particularly to suggest the following sub-themes in our call for abstracts of panels, papers, and posters. A vital goal for an international meeting is of course mutual discussion, in all directions, and this is particularly true at a meeting with sponsorship by commoners and high participation from commoners. We would like to ask that those who propose panels, papers, posters, and round tables consider interaction and discussion with the audience in the design of their proposals.


  1. 1. Commons and Social Capital for Livelihood Security in Crisis (Read more)
  2. 2. Commercialization and the Commons (Read more)
  3. 3. Urban Commons (Read more)
  4. 4. Collisions in Law and Culture (Read more)
  5. 5. Mobile Resources and Fluid Spaces (Read more)
  6. 6. Equity and Distributive Justice within the Commons (Read more)
  7. 7. State-Society Relations and the Protest Politics of Commons (Read more)
  8. 8. Commons and Complexity (Read more)
  9. 9. Commons as Local Energy Sources and Carbon Storage affecting Climate Change (Read more)
  10. 10. The Global Digital Commons (Read more)
  11. 11. Biodiversity and Genetic Resources as Commons (Read more)
  12. 12. Cultural Commons with Non-Consumptive Uses (Read more)
  13. 13. Campaigning On the Commons: Practical Lessons and Strategy (Read more)
  14. 14. Advancing Research on the Commons: Methods, Comparable Data, and Theoretical Research Frontiers (Read more)

© 2012 Overall Organizing Committee of IASC2013