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With the advent of modernity, the sharing of resources and infrastructures rapidly expanded beyond local communities into regional, national, and even transnational space -- nowhere as visibly as in Europe, with its small-scale political divisions. This volume views these shared resource spaces as the seedbeds of a new generation of technology-rich bureaucratic and transnational commons. Drawing on the theory of cosmopolitanism, which seeks to model the dynamics of an increasingly interdependent world, and on the tradition of commons scholarship inspired by the late Elinor Ostrom, the book develops a new theory of ''cosmopolitan commons'' that provides a framework for merging the study of technology with such issues as risk, moral order, and sustainability at levels beyond the nation-state.
After laying out the theoretical framework, the book presents case studies that explore the empirical nuances: airspace as transport commons, radio broadcasting, hydropower, weather forecasting and genetic diversity as information commons, transboundary air pollution, and two ''capstone'' studies of interlinked, temporally layered commons: one on overlapping commons within the North Sea for freight, fishing, and fossil fuels; and one on commons for transport, salmon fishing, and clean water in the Rhine.
Contributors:Håkon With Andersen, Nil Disco, Paul N. Edwards, Arne Kaijser, Eda Kranakis, Kristiina Korjonen-Kuusipuro, Tiago Saraiva, Nina Wormbs
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Cosmopolitan Commons
Infrastructures Series edited by Geoffrey C. Bowker and Paul N. Edwards Paul N. Edwards A Vast Machine: Computer Models, Climate Data, and the Politics of Global Warming Lawrence M. Busch Standards: Recipes for Reality Lisa Gitelman, ed. “Raw Data” Is an Oxymoron Finn Brunton Spam: A Shadow History of the Internet Nil Disco and Eda Kranakis, eds. Cosmopolitan Commons: Sharing Resources and Risks across Borders
Cosmopolitan Commons Sharing Resources and Risks across Borders
edited by Nil Disco and Eda Kranakis
The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England
© 2013 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. MIT Press books may be purchased at special quantity discounts for business or sales promotional use. For information, please email
[email protected] or write to Special Sales Department, The MIT Press, 55 Hayward Street, Cambridge, MA 02142. Set in Stone Sans and Stone Serif by the MIT Press. Printed and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Cosmopolitan commons : sharing resources and risks across borders / edited by Nil Disco and Eda Kranakis. pages ; cm.—(Infrastructures series) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-262-01902-6 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-262-51841-3 (pbk. : alk.paper) 1. Infrastructure (Economics)—Europe. 2. Europe—Economic integration. 3. Natural resources—International cooperation. I. Disco, Cornelis, editor of compilation. II. Kranakis, Eda, editor of compilation. HC240.9.C3C66 2013 333—dc23 2012038063 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Just as we were completing the manuscript of this book, we learned of the death of Elinor Ostrom. We began the project as newcomers to the field of commons research. At every turn, we encountered her fundamental contributions, which in turn have shaped our thinking. We see this work as building upon the intellectual tradition that she did so much to establish. We dedicat