This paper explores typical land and forest commons situation among the Kukis living in the hills of Manipur, India. Through an ethnographic account of two case villages, it unravels the context of commoning which is based on chief ownership and the villagers’ access rights and further discuss the context of continuity and change. In doing so, it examines significant elements such as the ownership system, traditional institutions vis-à-vis governance mechanism, commons situations vis-à-vis resource systems, and circumstances of access rights. It also examines the changes induced by the market that introduced capitalist relations through commoditisation. This phenomenon limits provisions of benefit sharing or access rights to livelihood sustenance and security, beyond which trade on valued resources became the prerogative of the chief’s exclusively. While the paper acknowledged the significant contributions of commons resources for the villagers’ livelihood, it offers a particular insight on the limitations of commons based only on access rather than collective ownership, amidst overarching state and market institution.
Global agricultural trade is a telecoupled system where demand in one region displaces environmental impact on distal supply regions. Governance and transformation of the trade of the commons requires a deep understanding of social change at multiple – individual to societal – levels shaping their demand. In this context, our research investigates how social networks function as informal institutions in shaping social norms and consequently driving demand. We develop an indicator to measure demand for agricultural products as captured in digital social networks, using a conceptual framework derived from a literature review, positing that personal attitudes and perceived social norms influence pro-environmental choices. We test this framework in the context of telecoupled demand for sustainable coffee consumption in Germany. We populated the indicator using big data from social media to capture people’s consumption and social trends online using X, collecting 1.9 million English and German posts from more than 7,000 primary users in Germany in two years. Employing content analysis, machine learning techniques, social network, and regression analysis, we identify correlations among factors such as product attributes, consumers’ sustainability awareness, and the attitude of consumers’ social circles (on sustainability and sustainable coffee) versus sustainable demand. The results provide empirical evidence that peer-to-peer social influence within digital networks is a powerful mechanism shaping demand with distal environmental consequences. This study sheds light on the complex interplay between individual choices, social influence on the demand side, and subsequently biodiversity on the supply side, as increasing demand for coffee tends to intensify the impacts of coffee systems on biodiversity. Digital platforms as a governance of the commons mechanism can restore the coordination abilities lost in societies with increasingly decentralised sources of information. It underscores the need for integrated approaches that consider both the intrapersonal and interpersonal levels to facilitate sustainable forms of transformative change in the biodiversity domain.
In many African countries, colonial legacies continue to shape spatial justice, access, and governance of commons, yet the role of maps and mapping in these dynamics is often overlooked. Conventional cartographic practices that are rooted in Cartesian epistemologies and embedded within capitalist and global frameworks, frequently reproduce colonial spatial orders, deepen inequalities, and alienate subaltern communities from their commons. This paper examines to what extent and under which conditions counter-mapping serves as a critical visual and socio-political practice for (re)commoning, using the case of Mida Creek in Kilifi County, Coastal Kenya, which is inhabited by the Giriama people of the Mijikenda community. Through re-framing historical narratives to highlight more a community perspective, the study reveals how mapping has historically facilitated enclosure and cartographic violence, while counter-mapping offers avenues to capture embedded local spatialities and reposition community claims in contested territories. Situated within ecologically sensitive commons, including the Watamu Marine Park Reserve and the Arabuko-Sokoke Forest, the rapidly urbanizing Mida Creek area faces intensifying pressures from tourism, mining, and urban expansion. This paper demonstrates how counter-mapping unveils and remakes territories in a manner that fosters collective agency, strengthens place-based knowledge, and supports the restoration of commons governance amid competing development interests.
The article explores the use of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) discourse in transforming longstanding socio-environmental development and commons conflicts in the mining landscape of the Peruvian Andes shaped by historical patterns of dispossession and violence. Building on the case of Conga, a megaproject in the region of Cajamarca, the article links histories of violence and resistance by the rondas campesinas with the proliferation of sustainable development initiatives. The findings suggest not only addressing the relationship between sustainability discourse, mining and violence, but considering sustainability as integral to the different forms of violence currently affecting the sector. The “SDGization” of the mining encounter does not resolve but rather has the paradoxical consequence of normalizing the structural violence of extractivism. In what can polemically be labelled “sustainability violence”, we argue that sustainability agendas and discourses offer another co-optable layer or materialization (investing, reporting and projects) that normalize and perpetuate century-old forms of extractivist violence against indigenous commons and their defenders. Alternative development visions, customary institutions and indigenous identities are not simply ignored, but “othered” as in discursive and legal terms. Developmentalized violence, we argue, is not only the physical presence, concession or the displacement resulting from extractivist policies, but one equally shaped by narrow sustainable development plans, objectives and reporting practices. The article displays the distinct translations and mediations between sustainable development measures and the structural violence experienced in the sector.
The paper explores a new approach called ‘Convivial Constitutionality’, which uses an institutional and political ecology lens in anthropology to theorise the conditions for broader participatory engagement with conservation in the Global West. It critically discusses the convivial conservation approach (see Büscher and Fletcher, 2019, 2020), advocating a different way for humans and nature to coexist in newer conservation approaches. Unlike fortress, co-management and new conservation models, convivial conservation is not a top-down approach. However, the paper also addresses an issue that convivial conservation shares with previous approaches: insufficient engagement with the ontological perception of the environment held by local societies in a more-than-human commons, and a lack of reflection on how these people have transformed their areas into cultural landscapes via common property institutions. The paper argues that the colonial legacy, historical aspects of green commons grabbing in a ‘glocal’ world, and local capabilities to craft new rules and regulations in a participatory, bottom-up manner, based on previous local institutions (property rights, rules, regulations, and norms), should be emphasised more. Considering these aspects, the term ‘conservation’ and its ideology should also be critically reflected upon when it comes to participatory approaches for the bottom-up building of institutions for the commons. This latter process is referred to as the constitutionality approach (Haller et al. 2016), which draws on a combined New Institutionalist and Political Ecology model (NIPE).
Public spaces in sub-Saharan African cities are undergoing redevelopment, which results in the displacement of informal workers. Despite statutory rule, customary laws still play a role in land use. “Commoning” in Kumasi, Ghana’s second-largest city, where informality is widespread, is examined using a new institutionalist approach. Through qualitative methods, an analysis of informal workers’ collective management of public spaces through prevailing customary rules and norms shows that informality is a significant aspect of these cities, maintained by local institutions that are often ignored by planning policies. The proposition is that commoning could offer a more inclusive approach to urban governance.
This paper examines leverage points for transformative change within biodiversity-relevant value chains, focusing on cocoa in Peru, small-scale artisanal gold mining in Ghana, and Indigenous forest-based handicrafts in Brazil. These value chains, while economically significant, are characterised by systemic challenges, including deforestation, biodiversity loss, social inequities, and unsustainable practices. Situating our analysis atthe intersection of the Leverage Points Framework and commons theory, the paper explores opportunities for fostering sustainability and equity by addressing these challenges through targeted interventions. The analysis highlights actionable pathways for systemic change not only in the three case studies but also in similar contexts globally.
This paper investigates the changing mobility practices of pastoralists in Sudan as they seek to sustain their livelihoods. The study focuses on the Fallata pastoralists in Gadarif State, eastern Sudan, as a case study to demonstrate these changes. Traditionally relying on long-distance movements to seasonal grazing areas, much of it across communal grazing lands, to access seasonal grazing areas, these pastoralists now face significant challenges due to the expansion of mechanized agriculture, land privatization, and environmental degradation. Using a mixed-methods approach—incorporating interviews, field observations, remote sensing, and participatory geographical information systems (PGIS)—the research reveals that the Fallata pastoralists have adapted to fragmented landscapes through a range of coping and adaptive strategies, including localized and intermediate-scale movements, seasonal east-west shifts toward riverine and border areas, the use of truck transport for livestock, and increasing integration with farming activities. Some occasionally cross the border into Ethiopia to access grazing and water resources. These evolving practices reflect a flexible and resilient response to land-use constraints, resource scarcity, and insecurity in eastern Sudan. However, some of the coping strategies carry economic risks and potential social and ecological impacts. These findings highlight the urgent need for policy reforms that support sustainable pastoral mobility and conflict resolution, grounded in the specific experiences of the Fallata pastoralists. By reflecting the realities of fragmented landscapes, negotiated access, and adaptive strategies, the study contributes to the growing debate on what makes nomadic pastoralist land-use systems resilient under conditions of climate change and uncertainty.
This paper investigates how Scottish festivals chose to implement commoning practices in both digital and hybrid spaces during the COVID-19 pandemic. Utilising a deductive thematic analysis approach, the authors draw out emergent themes from a series of interviews with festivals conducted between October 2020 and September 2021 to develop a set of aspects or commonalities between commoning practices for digital and hybrid festivals. The authors examine how some of these commoning practices are directly linked to traditional understandings of the cultural commons, such as the sharing of physical and knowledge resources with other organizations or shared forms of governance. While describing festivals as “commons” in themselves would be reductive and conceptually contentious, this paper argues not only that festivals can include commoning practices, but that these are inherently relevant to their identity and audiences that, even in times of extreme operational restrictions, these remain central to their activities.
This editorial introduces the Collection on “Energy Commons: Collective Action for Sustainable Energy” examining energy commons as alternatives to market-based energy systems. Through three empirical contributions, it explores how energy commoning practices navigate five fundamental paradoxes: inclusion versus exclusion, Western frameworks versus pluriversal approaches, local autonomy versus global coordination, narrow focus versus whole value chains, and anti-capitalist ideals versus market realities. The Collection demonstrates these tensions as productive forces driving innovation in energy governance.
The leverage points framework identifies strategic points within complex systems where small shifts can lead to significant changes. This research paper explores the utilisation of the leverage points framework within the context of sustainability and transformative change research, specifically focusing on decision-making processes that aim to promote biodiversity-positive outcomes It seeks to provide insights into the practical application of the leverage points framework, examining the challenges in integrating diverse perspectives, the flexibility and limitations of this framework. This study primarily analyses survey data from case study leaders within the European Horizon project PLANET4B, capturing their experiences and reflections on applying the leverage points framework in their co-creative workshops with stakeholders. The findings emphasise the importance of translating academic concepts into accessible terms, creating inclusive environments for discussions, and adapting the framework to suit specific social-ecological contexts. This exploration enhances the applicability and relevance of the leverage points framework in real-world sustainability projects, thereby fostering changes in biodiversity and societal transformations.
Discourses are linguistic expressions of socially constructed understandings of phenomena, which drive power dynamics by implicitly conveying values that may either support or suppress the interests of involved actors. Proponents of specific discourses often seek to establish their interpretation of a phenomenon as the predominant or sole narrative with the aim of furthering their own interests. This is particularly concerning when applied to complex public issues, such as biodiversity loss, in a post truth age in which alterative facts and misinformation can shape public debate and social perceptions more powerfully than objective evidence or rational argument. This paper examines how interest groups perceive and communicate about biodiversity, which sheds light on the underlying worldview, interests, and strategies behind their messaging. We examined documents from two biodiversity-relevant actor groups in Europe: political parties in Italy, Switzerland, Norway, and Austria; and environmental NGOs in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Norway. Text elements within the documents were categorised according to their rhetorical functions, including ‘warning’, ‘calling for action (or inaction)’, ‘informing’, ‘persuading’, ‘accusing’, ‘entertaining’, ‘othering’, and ‘raising hope’. The analysis reveals that political parties predominantly employ a rhetoric centred on ‘persuading’, ‘accusing’, and ‘othering’, aiming to rationalise and gain political support their stances and/or to assert themselves as solutions to biodiversity challenges. Environmental NGOs, on the other hand, use rhetoric focussed on ‘informing’, ‘warning’, and ‘persuading’, with consequences of action or inaction often linked to human impacts, to appeal to potential and actual supporters of their activities. These findings reveal the strategic use of biodiversity discourse by different actors to influence their targeted audiences, which provides insights for those interested in creating interventions to influence stakeholder perceptions and behaviours.
Outer space is increasingly used to expand and entrench State power due to a legal framework that proclaims universal freedoms while enabling de facto domination by actors with existing capital and technological capacity. This dynamic is visible in the U.S.’ expanding space infrastructure and growing monopolisation of Low Earth Orbits (LEO), which has been greatly accelerated by its private enterprise and which threatens equal access for other space actors. This paper traces the historical and symbiotic relationship between States and private actors in appropriating extraterritorial areas and resources, and the role that international law played in enabling, legitimising and entrenching such practices. Drawing parallels with historical accounts of private-turned-public appropriation, it highlights how private actors were pivotal in extending and amplifying State power. It then examines how similar dynamics and colonial rhetoric have returned to be applied to outer space, where ongoing State practice and legal developments risk following a similar pattern of facilitating and entrenching domination by States with current space capacities.
Suriname, considered the most forested country in the world, is home to a variety of Amazonian communities, both of Amerindian and African (Maroon) descent. The shifting cultivation that was required by their Amazonian environment has over the past centuries led to the emergence of intricate schemes to effectively manage common land resources. As this contribution shows, leafcutter ants have importantly served human communities by increasing and indicating levels of soil fertility and recommending the pace of shifting from one plot to the next. Over the past century, extractive activities (gold, bauxite and hydroelectricity) have set in motion a still ongoing process of 'enclosing' Suriname's Amazonian space. Ant eradication programmes implemented in the 1940s and 50s by the Agricultural Research Centre of Suriname departed from a profoundly racialized belief in "essential" characteristics of different Amazonian communities. This contribution argues that ant-human coexistence became an instrumental argument to showcase the alleged 'primitivity', 'ecological destructiveness' or even the 'parasitic nature' of certain Amazonian communities, which aided in their marginalization and eventual resettlement.
By examining the annual 'Pame Kaimakli' festival in Nicosia, Cyprus, this article explores how self-organized urban collectives can create urban commons through cultural production. Drawing on a decade-long, embedded case study and a mixed-methods approach, the study examines how the festival, curated by a local NGO together with residents and collaborators, is transforming a hyperdiverse neighbourhood. We introduce the concept of 'nurturing the commons', describing the festival's capacity to foster common narratives and mobilize inclusive participation, shared governance, and spatial co-production. The festival's recurring nature embeds artistic and cultural practices into neighbourhood life, sustaining relationships and counteracting the temporal constraints often associated with grassroots urbanism. By framing the festival through practices of commoning-organizational strategies, participatory socio-spatial repertoires, and negotiated spatial governance-the article discusses how festivals can generate concrete entry points into the commons within hyperdiverse urban environments. In doing so, it challenges dominant framings of festivals as economic or branding tools, instead positioning them as civic laboratories that foster diversity, creativity, and new forms of collective urbanism.
The loss of global biodiversity is recognised by politics and science as a global crisis. Its anthropogenic causes require a radical societal transformation, but stakeholder interests and low political priority decelerate action. The term's complexity and its vague usage in everyday life hinder public engagement and allow for a variety of understandings of the drivers and impacts of biodiversity decline in public discourse. News outlets play a crucial role in shaping how biodiversity is understood and valued. This study explores how European news outlets represent "biodiversity" and traces the evolution of this discourse over time. Using a case study approach, we analysed the discourse on biodiversity in news articles from Austria, Czechia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland and United Kingdom. For each country, five widely circulated national news outlets with diverse ideological perspectives were selected. For each news outlet, we collected articles mentioning biodiversity published in 2010 and 2022, yielding 169 and 385 articles, respectively. The articles were analysed using a qualitative content analysis in which statements were categorised with a framework focusing on definitions, values, rhetorical functions and actors. The results show that biodiversity is only rarely defined in European media. Over time, its attributed values have shifted from nature-centred ('ecocentric') to human-centred ('anthropocentric'), though the implications of this shift remain unclear. Additionally, while the term used to be frequently associated with scientific actors in 2010, by 2022 a broader range of actors, mainly NGOs and governments, had gained prominence. Cross-country differences were also noted, particularly in the emotional tone of reporting. The analysis offers a broad overview of biodiversity discourse of European news outlets and offers valuable insights for future policy and communication strategies. This nuanced analysis underscores the complexity and plurality of biodiversity values and discourses in Europe.
