The Commons in Perspective [Les biens communs en perspectives]

This book proposes a multidisciplinary approach to the commons, neither prescriptive nor concerned with defining a new path thus going beyond the alternative between private and public property. By adopting the perspective of the commons, it questions the dynamics of the three major institutions of the (capitalist) economy, retained as so many successive parts of the book: ownership, work and value, as well as their interweaving to lead to different modes of organization of activities and democratic life. The twelve contributions contribute to the construction of an analytical framework for studying modes of government, ownership structures, and the evolution of economic activities on different time and space scales. In particular, the book analyzes the historical process by which the state, after having been the "encompassing one" through the definition and guarantee of a public service, is now increasingly becoming the "encompassed one", due to the constraints imposed by other figures or legal entities representing public action and able to drive social transformations in various fields (transport, urban planning, culture, environment and heritage, finance). In so doing, the authors also invite us to be attentive to the maintenance of forms of co-ownership that are always threatened by dominant actors seeking to acquire full ownership of certain assets in order to enhance their value on the markets.