“Every commons is based on natural resources. Every commons is a knowledge commons. Every commons depends on a social process.”
–David Bollier and Silke Helfrich
Bioregions – which represent the intersection between nature and culture ("a geographic terrain and a terrain of consciousness," according to Peter Berg (2002), who co-founded the bioregioning movement about a half-century ago) – comprise a rich tapestry of commons, i.e. shared resources (forests, fisheries, fibersheds, etc.) and the self-governing communities stewarding them. This stewarding necessarily draws on bodies of ever-accumulating and ever-evolving knowledge – giving rise to a need for integrated knowledge commons, or living libraries of vital information on places, peoples, practices, processes, and patterns for stewarding bioregional commons that is openly available to all stewards.
The bioregioning movement is experiencing a significant resurgence. To support this movement, the presenters are engaged in collaboratively designing information architectures for federated knowledge commons to support bioregioning initiatives. We are in conversation with people and groups pursuing diverse strategies to gather, collate, and cross-reference bodies of practical and cultural knowledge that undergird bioregioning.
In this presentation, we will explore current initiatives in designing and stewarding federations of bioregional knowledge commons. We will share preliminary information architectures, our collaborations across diverse bioregional communities globally, and early examples of what bioregional knowledge commons look like – including interlinked wikis, geographic, geospatial and relational maps, video and audio resources, etc… We will also invite engagement from participants to learn about your experiences with designing and stewarding bioregional knowledge commons. Other participants include: David Bollier, Magenta Ceiba, Jessica Zartler,.
Presenters: Bill Baue, Rodger Mattlage, Nicole Negowetti, David Bollier, Magenta Ceiba, Jessica Zartler
Low-lying coastal communities are disproportionately vulnerable to coastal climate hazards that jeopardize livelihoods, health and wellbeing, heritage and connection to place, ocean-reliant economies, and critical infrastructure. To support communities in advocating for and making informed decisions about climate resilience in places they live, work, play in and rely on, ensuring information and data are accessible and usable for diverse users is critical. But how is this actually achieved? This presentation will describe a multi-pronged approach being implemented as part of a trans-disciplinary, community-engaged coastal climate resilience project in New England working waterfront communities geared at democratizing access to and the usability of information. This approach includes 1) the development of an ‘accessibility instrument’ against which to evaluate information/knowledge/data; 2) the creation of multimedia communication products to help researchers translate coastal resilience tools and data being produced for this project to heterogeneous audiences; 3) semi-structured community focus groups on data accessibility and information/knowledge gaps. Though this project is still in its early phases of implementation, we will discuss barriers and drivers to information accessibility internal and external to researcher’s sphere of influence; challenges and successes related to the co-development of relationships, networks, information; and themes including but not limited to data ownership in frontline communities, the hyper-localization of information, and the influence of researcher positionality and community context. We welcome feedback, discussion, and stories from attendees related to their own experiences making information more accessible to diverse audiences.
Lake Cerknica, located in southwestern Slovenia, is one of the largest intermittent lakes in Europe. Its surface area fluctuates dramatically throughout the year, ranging from as little as 0.1 km² during extreme drought to approximately 26 km² when fully inundated, with peak expansions reaching up to 38 km² during periods of heavy rainfall. This cyclical hydrological phenomenon, where the lake periodically fills and drains, has shaped both the cultural and ecological landscape of the region.
Historically, Lake Cerknica has functioned as a multifunctional landscape, supporting diverse human activities such as fishing, farming, and livestock grazing, all occurring within the same geographic space at different times of the year. Within this area, seven agrarian communities collectively manage specific portions of the landscape, deriving benefits from grazing, fodder production, fishing, and farming. However, over time, their land holdings and influence have significantly diminished due to broader socio-economic, political and environmental changes. Today, the area is managed by the Notranjska Regional Park, with conservation priorities aligned with Natura 2000 objectives. However, ongoing climate change presents new challenges, particularly by disrupting precipitation patterns and threatening biodiversity. These changes make it harder to manage the area, as shifting water levels increase conflicts between protecting nature and supporting farming, while the reduced involvement of agrarian communities adds to the difficulty of keeping the land well-managed.
This study proposes an alternative governance model that repositions Lake Cerknica and its surroundings as a form of regional blue-green infrastructure. By integrating ecological, hydrological, and socio-economic functions, this approach aims to maintain biodiversity goals while fostering a more inclusive role for agrarian communities in the face of climate change. We will present the advantages of this framework—specifically, how managing commons can enhance regional resilience and support long-term social-ecological stability.
This paper investigates how Vankars- handloom weavers in Kachchh, India’s largest district and an agropastoral zone, imagine their environment on cloth in this region which boasts Asia’s largest grassland, and the possibilities of this work for Vankars’ knowledge commons. I draw upon multi-year fieldwork at India’s transnational western borderland and analyze Vankars’ narratives and the textiles they weave. Vankars adapt and innovate in the face of capitalist expansion and environmental degradation, plumbing value through imaginative environmental work that asserts the ontological power of the heritage commons of their motifs, materials, and methods. Even as this imaginative work expands the cultural commons of weaving communities, other value-generating projects in this frontier of capitalist expansion erode environmental livelihoods, lifeworlds, and life-chances for species, including the social reproduction base of Vankars. I discuss Vankars’ “commoning” with pastoralists and farmers to create new knowledge commons pertaining to fibers and fabrics, and to sustain what I call ‘the commons of an enviro-cultural lifeworld’, as well as the fraught inequalities of this process.
The agro-extractive regime pursued by the corporatized state and the pervasive expansion of capital accumulation has turned the rural commons of Indonesia into an agrarian war zone. This is marked by the proliferation of serious challenges by small peasants and indigenous peoples who are ‘in the way’ of the neoliberal state apparatus and market imperatives being imposed by a globalizing colonial capitalism. It would therefore be a political if not ethical oversight to remain oblivious to the perseverance of small peasant and indigenous ways of learning in resistance to the violence of development dispossession (DD) by the postcolonial development state and the market. This study seeks to contribute towards organizing, networking and learning in social action in anti-dispossession struggles addressing agro-extractive related DD in Sulawesi through Participatory Action Research (PAR), while engaging in and seeking to understand the multiple modes of small peasant and indigenous learning and knowledge production processes embedded in resistance to DD in rural Indonesia. The study derives its’ primary significance from practical PAR interventions in anti-land dispossession struggles in Sulawesi in the face of agro-extractive expansionism addressing DD in the ‘post colony’ and especially in relation to learning and knowledge production and networking in and around these struggles. PAR collaborations have been made in this regard with small peasant struggles to address palm oil and coconut plantation DD in Sulawesi, Indonesia. The theoretical and conceptual significance of the study is in relation to, both, the development of movement-relevant knowledge and theoretical conversations with Marxist and anti-colonial perspectives, including the potential for cross-pollination of ideas between these perspectives.
© 2025 | Privacy & Cookies Policy
