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 int...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Utrecht University Library Open Access Journals (Publishing Services)
2024-03-01
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| Series: | International Journal of the Commons |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://account.thecommonsjournal.org/index.php/up-j-ijc/article/view/1250 |
| _version_ | 1797202889588867072 |
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| author | Liz Richardson Catherine Durose Matt Ryan Jess Steele |
| author_facet | Liz Richardson Catherine Durose Matt Ryan Jess Steele |
| author_sort | Liz Richardson |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | 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. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-24T08:10:37Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-6e8abf52f87b46e082b1bf210e652d9b |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1875-0281 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-24T08:10:37Z |
| publishDate | 2024-03-01 |
| publisher | Utrecht University Library Open Access Journals (Publishing Services) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | International Journal of the Commons |
| spelling | doaj.art-6e8abf52f87b46e082b1bf210e652d9b2024-04-17T06:44:49ZengUtrecht University Library Open Access Journals (Publishing Services)International Journal of the Commons1875-02812024-03-01181218–230218–23010.5334/ijc.1250715Knowledge for the Commons: What is Needed Now?Liz Richardson0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9889-7682Catherine Durose1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1712-9914Matt Ryan2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8693-5063Jess Steele3University of ManchesterUniversity of LiverpoolUniversity of SouthamptonJericho Road SolutionsWe 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.https://account.thecommonsjournal.org/index.php/up-j-ijc/article/view/1250practice theorycomparisoninterpretationparticipatory budgetingethnographycommonsversemyceliummethodology |
| spellingShingle | Liz Richardson Catherine Durose Matt Ryan Jess Steele Knowledge for the Commons: What is Needed Now? International Journal of the Commons practice theory comparison interpretation participatory budgeting ethnography commonsverse mycelium methodology |
| title | Knowledge for the Commons: What is Needed Now? |
| title_full | Knowledge for the Commons: What is Needed Now? |
| title_fullStr | Knowledge for the Commons: What is Needed Now? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Knowledge for the Commons: What is Needed Now? |
| title_short | Knowledge for the Commons: What is Needed Now? |
| title_sort | knowledge for the commons what is needed now |
| topic | practice theory comparison interpretation participatory budgeting ethnography commonsverse mycelium methodology |
| url | https://account.thecommonsjournal.org/index.php/up-j-ijc/article/view/1250 |
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