My tutorial questions answered...

What is a commons?
A commons is an environment (can be macro or micro in scale, can be highly modified urban or retaining natural biodiversity) which is used by multiple actors. With or without common goals, motivations and perspectives.

Examples of commons that I have been a part of or used:

Share house - I have lived in share houses which worked because we all shared similar perspectives about habitual “norms” and I have been involved in a share house where views differed about food, drug-use and cleaning habits and the living arrangements broke down. Living with a vegan-vegetarian who would put “meat is murder” stickers around the kitchen didn’t help to unite the different food perspectives of people living there for example. It is also difficult to raise the issue of drug taking habits’ with friends when they do not see that their behaviour as out of the ordinary... This can have flow on affects to food shortages in the house.

Uni Food Co-Op - I am apart of the ANU Food Co-Operative which is an organic food shop on the edge of the campus. You have to pay a joining fee to buy into the commons and then you can volunteer selling food, doing maintenance, etc.and get cheaper food. This is an institutional incentive to play a more active role in the commons and rewards collective behaviour and cooperation, because collective action benefits the whole.
Public Park – This is a commons often associated with urban environments and a place where people can unite for multiple activities with multiple perspectives. Each group uses the space differently physically and approaches the activity with a different sub-cultural background rooted in their activity of choice; dog owners, joggers, people playing sport or people having barbeques etc. Institutional rules are often present, if not actively enforced, in the form of signage; “leash your dog” etc. For this type of commons break down occurs usually through some form of vandalism, the burning down of a children’s playground or an owner not picking up the dog poo for example. An individual acting in self interest has a negative affect on the commons.

ANU Organic Garden - I am also part of an organic garden commons on campus. Three sessions a week the garden is open to people who want to come down and learn about organic gardening and get involved in the cultivation of organic food. We work in the garden, gain knowledge and then get to take food home at the end of the day that we pick fresh form the plants. This is a great example of the success of collective commons action when actors share views and perspectives. The garden does suffer from excludability issues as it is not fenced and people and pests often help themselves to the produce.

Rural Road – Another commons that I have been a part of is a common rural road that ran through multiple private properties to get to our property in the Brindabella ranges. The road serviced four different private properties and land owned by a timber company. As a collective the four land owners and the timber company all serviced their respective sections of the road. The commons functioned well until one of the land owners suffered an erosion problem that forced the road to adapt and go around his land. This was a communal property commons.

What are some of the key determinants that dictate whether the communal systems examples identified above have worked or not?
The key determinants for systems that worked are the shared “norms” or views held by people who may have different ways of using the environment and the understanding that cooperation is key to successful commons. Sometimes observable rules must be set up for monitoring the use of a system, a sign in book for the food co-op for example helps track the participation rewarding collectively.
Commons collapse when individual users act or do not act collectively. This can happen for example, when the property owner did not maintain the erosion at an early stage on the road, or when someone takes other peoples food in a share house, these are problems of subtractability. Commons can also collapse because of excludability like the example of the “poachers” in the organic vege-patch.

Why is it that some communal systems involved in the management of resources work while others don’t?
Communal systems work because of multiple actors working together to sustain the system, understanding that collective rules either legislated or accepted local knowledge should govern that system. Working together is mutually beneficial, sustaining the system sustains the income or benefit that the system gives the user, while working individually will lead to the system collapse. We saw this in class with the slide of the Victoria/South Australia border. Individualism may be profitable the short term but will ruin an ecosystem.