The Commons in an Age of Uncertainty

In the last two hundred years, the earth has increasingly become the private property of a few classes, races, transnational corporations, and nations. Repeated claims about the "tragedy of the commons" and the "crisis of capitalism" have done little to explain this concentration of land, encourage solution-building to solve resource depletion, or address our current socio-ecological crisis.

The Commons in an Age of Uncertainty presents a new explanation, vision, and action plan based on the idea of commoning the land. The book argues that by commoning the land, rather than privatising it, we can develop the foundation for prosperity without destructive growth and address both local and global challenges. Making the land the most fundamental priority of all commons does not only give hope, it also opens the doors to a new world in which economy, environment, and society are decolonised and liberated.

The Commons in an Age of Uncertainty develops a new theory of the commons and advances a hopeful vision and an action plan focused on commoning the land.

• Imprint: University of Toronto Press
• Published: November 2020
• Pages: 280

• epub: 9781487537616
• pdf: 9781487513900
• hardcover: 9781487501761

Franklin Obeng-Odoom is associate professor of Sustainability Science at the University of Helsinki.

"The Commons in An Age of Uncertainty is a tour de force."

Ulrich Duchrow, University of Heidelberg

American Journal of Economics and Sociology

"An interesting contribution to urban studies, in addition to a comprehensive examination of the socio-ecological crisis."

Domen Žalac, University of Ljubljana

Urbani izziv

"The Commons in an Age of Uncertainty is a tour de force."

Ulrich Duchrow, University of Heidelberg

American Journal of Economics and Sociology

"Throughout, Obeng-Odoom seeks to clearly illustrate the theoretical paradigms set through their structural limitations, which he transcends with empirically supported examples that he devises along the lines of the Radical Alternative discourse."

Domen Žalac, University of Ljubljana

Urbani izziv

"This is a significant contribution to modern political economy, integrating Georgist ideas about land with considerations of the progressive potential of the commons and its management."

Frank Stilwell

Journal of Australian Political Economy

"In his new book, leading Georgist scholar Franklin Obeng-Odoom argues that Ostrom is not the piper at the dawn of a new commons-era. In fact, her approach is consistent with a ‘not if, but when’ view of commons enclosure."

Emily Sims, Prosper Australia

Progress

"The author is provocative and provides a nuanced analysis of the political ecology of cities, technologies, oil, and water. He challenges land economists and suggests a new ecological political economy founded on the conceptualization of land as a methodological approach. […] In The Commons in an Age of Uncertainty, Obeng-Odoom opens an avenue for imagining the possibilities of a new world anchored on the commons."

Maano Ramutsindela, University of Cape Town

LSE Review of Books

"The Commons in an Age of Uncertainty is a remarkable scholarly reflection on the features of the actual economy most neglected by what has become standard economic theory. Most important, perhaps, is the renewal of a focus on land, which is a unique form of capital. It may help to overcome the scandalous neglect of Henry George, which has made the dominance of neoliberal economic theory, so much preferred by transnational corporations, possible."

John B. Cobb, Jr., American theologian, philosopher, environmentalist, and faculty co-director (Emeritus), The Center for Process Studies

"Rejecting both Conventional Wisdom and Western Left Consensus discourses about the Commons, Obeng-Odoom skillfully articulates a third way: The Radical Alternative. Weaving together concepts such as rent theft, just land, and the Global South, he argues passionately for a Just Ecological Political Economy."

Julian Agyeman, Tufts University, author of Introducing Just Sustainabilities: Policy, Planning, and Practice