I beni comuni fra economia, diritto e filosofia

(The Commons between Economics, Law, and Philosophy)

Abstract

This paper briefly explores the cultural and political context within which the notion of the “commons” has developed as a successful idea. It explores some notions such as “sustainability” that have been already normalized by mainstream economics, and it asks the question of whether a similar fate will happen also to the commons. The essay discusses some current contestations of this notion and its revolutionary potential, and it concludes that by genuinely deploying the commons as a weapon of revolutionary theory and praxis, scholars might succeed in developing a new vision rooted neither in the positivistic world of the “is” nor in the ideological world of the “ought to be” but in the creative and generative world of the “could be.”