Privatizing Nature Political Struggles for the Global Commons

The concept of 'the commons' as a device for controlling land, forests, rivers and natural resources first entered the political realm during the enclosure movement in pre-industrial Britain. Now, as we approach the 21st century, new forms of enclosures and notions of private property are emerging - from water rights, biodiversity, and 'gene pools' of plants and humans, to the demands of multinational corporations for free access to more land for investment and exploitation. The power of the commons is still flourishing and the 'global commons' now provides the central metaphor for ecological politics.

The Commons - a material and symbolic reality, always changing, never purely local or global, traditional or modern, and always reflecting the vibrant colours of its ecological, political cultural, scientific and social character - is not at all disappearing into the dustbin of history. To the contrary, we find that the commons are increasingly becoming a site for robust and tangible struggles over class, gender, nation/ethnicity, knowledge, power and, of course, nature. Privatizing Nature discusses the valuation of the global commons in light of the growing, global social movements, focused on or related to the political struggles the global commons.

The contributors to 'Privatizing Nature' examine the reasons behind the political resurgence of the commons, and the widespread struggle to transform existing nature-society relations into ones that are less exploitative, socially just, and ecologically healthy. Tackling the key themes - such as the convergence of environment and social justice, global commodities, and the role of social movements - the authors draw on examples from the Amazon, Mexico, Cameroon, India and the industrialised North. They argue that, although environmental problems like the Chernobyl disaster suggest that the world is indeed shrinking, the fate of the global commons should not be left to a new powerful class of global problem-solvers at the World Bank, IMF, NAFTA, and WTO. By contrast, the authors highlight the political expertise of social movements fighting dominant strategies to 'privatize nature'.

* Preface by Susan George * Introduction: The Political Resurgence of the Commons, by Michael Goldman 1. Inventing the Commons: Theories and Practices of the Commons' Professional, by Michael Goldman 2. Social Movements and the Remaking of the Commons in the Brazilian Amazon, by Antonio Carlos Diegues 3. Between NAFTA and Zapata: Responses to Restructuring the Commons in Chiapas and Oaxaca, Mexico, by Lynn Stephen 4. In Defence of the Commons: Forest Battles in Southern Cameroon, by Samuel-Alain Nguiffo 5. Nature as Community: The Convergence of Environment and Social Justice, Giovanna DiChiro 6. Biodiversity: Of Local Commons and Global Commodities, by Michael Flitner 7. Fairness, Social Capital and the Commons: The Societal Foundations of Collective Action in the Himalaya, by Sanjeev Prakash 8. Style and Scale: Two Sources of Institutional Inappropriateness, by Michael Thompson