“Neither the State nor the market has been uniformly successful in enabling individuals to sustain long-term, productive use of common-pool resource systems.” — Elinor Ostrom, Governing the Commons (1990).
Starting from the seminal work of Elinor Ostrom, CNR-IRISS is launching the 2026 seminar series “Commons / Common Values”, running from January to June 2026. The series opened on 20 January 2026 and aims to create an interdisciplinary space for discussion on the meaning, governance and future of the commons. The initiative responds to a broader challenge that is increasingly affecting different fields of research: established categories such as public and private are no longer sufficient to explain the ways in which communities access, use, share and govern resources. The concept of the commons therefore calls for new theoretical perspectives, new forms of regulation and new ways of understanding collective value.
The seminar series is conceived as a continuous exchange between theory, methodology and practice, bringing together academic research, experimentation and action in real-world contexts. For this reason, the programme is not limited to the institutional spaces of CNR-IRISS. It has been designed as an open and itinerant initiative, moving across public institutions, emerging commons and places of cultural production, and involving national and international scholars, practitioners and local experiences. Throughout the series, the commons will be explored from different disciplinary perspectives and at different scales. The programme begins with the historical, legal and political foundations of the commons, examining the tensions between public, private and common forms of ownership and governance, and questioning how value, access, use and collective responsibility are defined. Further seminars will address environmental and essential commons, ecological conflicts, regenerative approaches and biodiversity as a shared resource and value. Attention will also be given to the effects of debt, public finance and commodification processes on collectively used resources. The urban dimension will form another important strand of the programme. By bringing together different disciplines, institutions and practices, “Commons / Common Values” seeks to contribute to a shared field of reflection in which commons are understood not as fixed categories, but as living, situated and plural practices shaped through collective use, responsibility and governance.