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Knowledge for the Commons: what is needed now?

Knowledge for the Commons: what is needed now?
Knowledge for the Commons: what is needed now?
We set out a case for practice theory as a way to better understand and advance commoning, responding to calls for more communologies, that is, methodologies for the commons. Within the framing offered by practice theory, we argue for two potentially complementary ways of knowing: comparison and interpretation. These approaches and combinations of them are under-used in the field but are growing as additional ways of knowing that could inform both theory-building and practice. The aim is to add to the knowledge base for commons movements, as part of the mycelium for the commonsverse. Such a claim is not just a methodological or epistemological argument, but an argument about how to advance the commoning movement by rethinking how we try to understand and study it. Particularly, we focus on trying to bridge the gap between the utopian aspirations of commons movements and the realities of making such changes to existing ways of organising social, political and economic life. Worked examples by the authors are offered to illustrate the value of comparison and interpretation. One is from a ’comparative configurational analysis’ of participatory budgeting, suggesting that some of the widely argued combinations of success factors for those initiatives are not borne out by the evidence. A second worked example showcases an innovative ‘autoactionography’ method, which helps to reveal the lived experiences of developing new practices of commoning, and how commoners in one place are creating strategies towards an ontological shift against dominant modes of social organisation. It concludes with a call for methodologies that foreground an understanding of the world as a recursive process of dynamic interplays between material resources, various forms of human agency and know-how, and ascribed meanings and aspirations.
commonsverse, comparison, ethnography, interpretation, methodology, mycelium, participatory budgeting, practice theory
1875-0281
218-230
Richardson, Liz
c4e98c2a-9051-43f3-be61-542e4df98dc1
Durose, Catherine
9773692b-b486-404a-8c68-53652a252e31
Ryan, Matt
f07cd3e8-f3d9-4681-9091-84c2df07cd54
Steele, Jess
81cd101e-58c5-429d-b008-da25dbe0a1c0
Richardson, Liz
c4e98c2a-9051-43f3-be61-542e4df98dc1
Durose, Catherine
9773692b-b486-404a-8c68-53652a252e31
Ryan, Matt
f07cd3e8-f3d9-4681-9091-84c2df07cd54
Steele, Jess
81cd101e-58c5-429d-b008-da25dbe0a1c0

Richardson, Liz, Durose, Catherine, Ryan, Matt and Steele, Jess (2024) Knowledge for the Commons: what is needed now? International Journal of the Commons, 18 (1), 218-230. (doi:10.5334/ijc.1250).

Record type: Article

Abstract

We set out a case for practice theory as a way to better understand and advance commoning, responding to calls for more communologies, that is, methodologies for the commons. Within the framing offered by practice theory, we argue for two potentially complementary ways of knowing: comparison and interpretation. These approaches and combinations of them are under-used in the field but are growing as additional ways of knowing that could inform both theory-building and practice. The aim is to add to the knowledge base for commons movements, as part of the mycelium for the commonsverse. Such a claim is not just a methodological or epistemological argument, but an argument about how to advance the commoning movement by rethinking how we try to understand and study it. Particularly, we focus on trying to bridge the gap between the utopian aspirations of commons movements and the realities of making such changes to existing ways of organising social, political and economic life. Worked examples by the authors are offered to illustrate the value of comparison and interpretation. One is from a ’comparative configurational analysis’ of participatory budgeting, suggesting that some of the widely argued combinations of success factors for those initiatives are not borne out by the evidence. A second worked example showcases an innovative ‘autoactionography’ method, which helps to reveal the lived experiences of developing new practices of commoning, and how commoners in one place are creating strategies towards an ontological shift against dominant modes of social organisation. It concludes with a call for methodologies that foreground an understanding of the world as a recursive process of dynamic interplays between material resources, various forms of human agency and know-how, and ascribed meanings and aspirations.

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Accepted/In Press date: 16 January 2024
Published date: 13 March 2024
Additional Information: Publisher Copyright: © 2024 The Author(s).
Keywords: commonsverse, comparison, ethnography, interpretation, methodology, mycelium, participatory budgeting, practice theory

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 488104
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/488104
ISSN: 1875-0281
PURE UUID: 8777a749-935c-464d-8b65-8b1893c2da76
ORCID for Matt Ryan: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-8693-5063

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Date deposited: 15 Mar 2024 17:46
Last modified: 25 May 2024 01:43

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Contributors

Author: Liz Richardson
Author: Catherine Durose
Author: Matt Ryan ORCID iD
Author: Jess Steele

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