Course description
Territories and areas that Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) govern, manage and conserve are increasingly recognized by scientists, international agencies, nongovernmental and grassroots organizations, as key to a sustainable planet.
Hundreds of thousands of such areas exist globally, covering millions of square kilometers of land and seascapes on all five continents, contributing to the conservation and sustainable use of a significant proportion of the world’s natural resources and biodiversity. However, these systems are under threats and often have little to no formal recognition or support from nation-state governments. These territories are called by many local names (e.g. cayolars, regole, beni communali, sections de commune, patriziati) in Europe, but can be classified under the rubric of “commons”, which are geographical areas where groups of people collectively manage their resources.
Commons as a concept was first misunderstood as a case of mismanagement of open access resources by Hardin, an idea which unfortunately gained a lot of attention. Later, Elinor Ostrom, laureate of a Nobel prize for her work on these institutions, helped us to understand that commons are rules-based institutions which ensure the future of a shared resource; her 8 rules of common property institutions guide commons work around the world. In Europe we see active commons movements in both rural and urban areas.
In this course, we will explore the challenges of IPLCs and various movements by these groups to defend their rights. Globally we will explore famous cases from the Amazon such as the Sarayaku and the Sacred Headwaters Initiative, then at the European level we will explore cases from Spain, Finland, France, and Switzerland, and finally considering the Italian case. Italy and its legal reforms in the last 7 years are a stellar example of how legal change can support recognition for commons and the people who depend on them. We will discuss global movements and associations such as the ICCA Consortium and the International Association for the Studying of the Commons, amongst others.

Learning outcomes
By the end of the course, students will understand the struggles of IPLCs generally, but also through specific examples from around the world. They will have an understanding of the European context, and specifically of the Italian one. They will be able to apply this learning to cases from their home countries or regions.

Teaching and Evaluation methods
Teaching will be a mixture of classic teaching, discussion groups around key works, and a field visit to an Italian common called a “Regole” in the nearby area, and guest speakers (via Zoom) who work with Italian commons (e.g. Marco Bassi of the Università degli Studi di Palermo, current coordinator of Europe’s ICCA network; Cristina Dalla Torre, EURAC; Miriam Tola, John Cabot University-Rome).

Evaluation will be done through
1) group work, where students apply Ostrom’s 8 rules to a common of their choice, and present this work orally in class (40% of the grade)
2) individual work: submit a 5-page document where students will present a common from their home region, assessing its challenges and opportunities (60%).

Bibliography
Baidoo, A., Walters, G., & Ongolo, S. (2024). Global China and the ‘commons’: Rosewood governance in rural Ghana. World Development Sustainability, 4, 100126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wds.2024.100126
Bassi, M. (2022). Territories of Life in Europe: Towards a Classification of the Rural Commons for Biodiversity Conservation. Antropologia Pubblica, 8(2).
Bravo, G., & De Moor, T. (2008). The commons in Europe: From past to future.
International Journal of the Commons2, 2(2), Article 2.
Galán, E., Garmendia, E., & García, O. (2022). The contribution of the commons to the persistence of mountain grazing systems under the Common Agricultural Policy. Land Use Policy, 117, 106089. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2022.106089
Haller, T. (Ed.). (2021). Balancing the commons in Switzerland: Institutional transformations and sustainable innovations. Routledge.
Haller, T. (2022). From commons to resilience grabbing: Insights from historically- oriented social anthropological research on African peasants. Continuity and Change, 37(1), 69–95. https://doi.org/10.1017/S026841602200011X
Hardin, G. (1968). The tragedy of the commons. Science, 162, 1243–1248.
ICCA Consortium. (2021). Territories of Life: 2021 Report. ICCA Consortium. https://report.territoriesoflife.org/executive-summary/
Iniciative comunales. (2013). The Valdeavellano de Tera Declaration on the Recognition and defence of the Commons and ICCAs in Spain. http://www.icomunales.org/wp- content/uploads/2017/02/ENG-The-Valdeavellano-de-Tera-Declaration.pdf
Louvin, R., & Alessi, N. P. (2021). Un nouveau souffle pour les consorteries de la Vallée d’Aoste. Revue de Géographie Alpine, 109–1. https://doi.org/10.4000/rga.8249 (work to be translated to English: A new lease of life for Aosta Valley consorteries)
Ostrom, E. (1990). Governing the commons: The evolution of institutions for collective action. Cambridge University Press.
Ostrom, E., Burger, J., Field, C. B., Norgaard, R. B., & Policansky, D. (1999). Revisiting the Commons: Local lessons, global challenges. Science, 284, 278–282.
Pascual, U., Balvanera, P., Anderson, C. B., Chaplin-Kramer, R., Christie, M., González- Jiménez, D., Martin, A., Raymond, C. M., Termansen, M., Vatn, A., Athayde, S., Baptiste, B., Barton, D. N., Jacobs, S., Kelemen, E., Kumar, R., Lazos, E., Mwampamba, T. H., Nakangu, B., … Zent, E. (2023). Diverse values of nature for sustainability. Nature, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06406-9
Smith, G., Walters, G., & Hymas, O. (2021). Dwelling in the relational commons: Exploring the contemporary role and significance of a “section de commune” in the Jura Mountains, France. In J.-F. Joye (Ed.), Les “communaux” au XXIe siècle (pp. 397– 413). Presses Universitaires Savoie Mont Blanc.

Last updated: January 29, 2025