On value and the Commons

Abstract

Approaches to post-capitalist commons often see them defined by value practices of sharing, reciprocity, solidarity and care in opposition to capitalist market values. This contribution draws on ethnographies of actually existing commons to propose a somewhat different approach to valuation in the commons. Commons are dependent for their reproduction on market valuations, so that it becomes impossible to define commons as social spaces based on their freedom from the market. At the same time, not all market valuations are necessarily capitalistic. Moreover, value practices often considered proper to the commons are not free from dynamics of inequality and power. Focusing on the organization of labour in the commons, this contribution highlights how unevenness might build on or newly create inequalities among the commoners. Consequently, limits to the commons – in terms of their capacity to contribute to post-capitalist transformation – might arise not only from an encroachment of an external capitalist system.