Think Like a Commoner, Second Edition - 2nd Edition by David Bollier (Paperback)

About the Book

A popular introduction to the growing global movement building practical, autonomous alternatives to the predatory Market/State order.

Book Synopsis

Welcome to the Commonsverse, a parallel social economy helping millions of commoners take charge and escape the predatory Market/State order.

This completely revised and updated edition of Think Like a Commoner offers a succinct yet thorough account of the history and future of the commons.

Working outside of both market capitalism and state power, commoners are deeply committed to developing local, practical solutions, social trust, and community. From relocalized agriculture to open-source learning, diverse types of commons -- ecological, social, digital, urban -- are building a decentralized Commonsverse. This parallel economy is powered by the peer governance of shared wealth; respectful engagement with the Earth; participation; and fairness.

Widely respected activist and scholar David Bollier explores the full scope of the commons in contemporary life, including:

• A survey of successful commons initiatives, from shared land and water, to digital commons, mutual aid networks, alternative currencies, cohousing, and more
• The centuries-old cultural traditions, Indigenous practices, and historical folkways that gave rise to the modern commons Commons under siege - how enclosures of shared wealth through trade treaties, copyright and trademark law, commodification, privatization, and outright theft are dispossessing commoners and worsening inequality
• Understanding the commons as a profoundly relational, living social organism that itself generates value.

The Commonsverse is a dynamic, evolving socio-political space that is constantly being reimagined and rebuilt. Driven forward by worldwide networks of traditionalists and innovators working collaboratively outside of mainstream institutions, commoning constitutes a quiet revolution of real, functional alternatives. Pull up a chair, relax, and let's talk about the commons.

Review Quotes

Every 21st century economic thinker needs to understand the commons, from their fascinating histories to their many future possibilities--and this book provides the perfect introduction. It is the starting point that I recommend to everyone.
--Kate Raworth, author, Doughnut Economics

We don't live alone in the world, but it's organized in ways that push us apart. Think Like a Commoner restores those relationships--with place, as well as with each other. In place of passive anxiety, these pages are filled with meaningful acts of care--as already practiced by grassroots communities across the world.
--John Thackara, author, convenor, educator

In Think Like a Commoner, David Bollier, the trailblazing commons thinker and activist, has formulated the economic principles of an animate universe. He manages the rare task of both sketching a bold new economic cosmology and detailing the filigree of its practical applications. The intrigued reader comes to understand: not only is reality as such a commons, centered around the reciprocity of the gift of life, so are the bulk of our cultural practices and many systems of material and social exchange. The commons, it turns out, is what underlies everything and what ultimately fulfills our deepest longings.
--Dr. Andreas Weber, biologist, philosopher, and author, The Biology of Wonder and Matter and Desire

Curious about the commons and eager to build a new world? You could not find a more accessible, inspiring guidebook than Think Like a Commoner. Highly recommended!
--Susan Witt, co-founder and executive director, Schumacher Center for a New Economics

David Bollier, the doyen of today's champions of the commons, has written the definitive primer. The commons is inexorably moving to the forefront of progressive thinking and action. Quite simply, without a commons revival, there is no future.
--Guy Standing, author, The Blue Commons

Since the first publication of David Bollier's earlier version of Think Like a Commoner in 2014, I have consistently used it in classes I teach at my university. I know of no work that so gracefully presents commons history, the many types of commons that exist in our world, and key issues they face. This book should be required reading--not just for all students--but for every person on the planet, to allow them to rediscover ideas they may have forgotten, introduce new ones, and become inspired toward collectively generating a better world, one commoning instance at a time.
--Charlie Schweik, professor, University of Massachusetts, and president, International Association for the Study of the Commons (2022-2024)

This landmark book lays out a comprehensive framework for a parallel polis: how we might reorient our society around a way of communing that sets the conditions for collective human flourishing.
--Jeremy Lent, author, The Patterning Instinct and The Web of Meaning

In this highly readable overview, David Bollier re-introduces us to the web of social trust and cooperation that existed before capitalism--and that we must reweave if we are to survive. Fortunately, there are innumerable examples of "commoning" around the world, where groups of social innovators are finding ways to create an open-access, sustainable, vibrant future.
--Richard Heinberg, author, Power, senior fellow, Post Carbon Institute

About the Author

David Bollier is an American activist and scholar who studies the commons as a new paradigm for re-imagining economics, politics, and culture. He has been Director of the Reinventing the Commons Program at the Schumacher Center for a New Economics (USA) since 2016, and frequently collaborates with an international network of brilliant irregulars. He blogs at Bollier.org, hosts the podcast Frontiers of Commoning, and has written ten books on the commons, including The Commoner's Catalog for Changemaking, Patterns of Commoning, The Wealth of the Commons, and, with Silke Helfrich, Free, Fair and Alive. Bollier lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.