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Our Common Wealth by Jonathan Rowe and Peter Barnes
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Our Common Wealth

The Hidden Economy That Makes Everything Else Work

By Jonathan Rowe and Peter Barnes

By Jonathan Rowe and Peter Barnes

Best Seller
Paperback $16.95

Apr 01, 2013 | ISBN 9781609948337

Our Common Wealth by Jonathan Rowe and Peter Barnes
Paperback $16.95
Apr 01, 2013 | ISBN 9781609948337

Buy from Other Retailers:

  • $16.95

    Apr 01, 2013 | ISBN 9781609948337

    Buy from Other Retailers:

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About Our Common Wealth

A huge part of our economy is invisible, invaluable, and under siege. This is “the commons,” a term that denotes everything we share. Some parts of the commons are gifts of nature: the air and oceans, the web of species, wilderness, and watersheds. Others are the product of human creativity and endeavor: sidewalks and public spaces, the Internet, our languages, cultures, and technologies. Jonathan Rowe illuminates the scale and value of the commons, its symbiotic relationship with the rest of our economy, its importance to our personal and planetary well-being, and how it is threatened by privatization and neglect. He unifies many seemingly disparate struggles—against pollution, excessive development, corporate marketing to children, and more—with the force of this powerful idea. And he calls for new institutions that create a durable balance between the commons and the profit-seeking side of our economy.

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Product Details

Category: Domestic Politics

Paperback | $16.95
Published by Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Apr 01, 2013 | 144 Pages | 5-1/2 x 8-1/2 | ISBN 9781609948337

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Praise

“This elegant book is a wonderful introduction to the originality of thought, clarity of expression, and humanity of vision that made Jonathan Rowe so respected by those who knew him. It will change the way you think about economic, environmental and social problems and how to solve them. “
— James Fallows, national correspondent, The Atlantic

“Jonathan Rowe describes the emerging movement to protect the vast commonwealth owned by the people. Gird yourself to see nature and human ingenuity in a very different light. Then open these pages and a whole new world will come into focus.”
—Ralph Nader
“There is an economics of common wealth. Common wealth can and must be managed. That is Jon Rowe’s gift to us.”
–George Lakoff, Professor of Cognitive Science and Linguistics, University of California at Berkeley and author of Don’t Think of an Elephant

Table Of Contents

Foreword by Bill McKibben
Introduction by Peter Barnes
Part One: Theory
1: Our hidden wealth
2: How tragic is the commons?
3: A new commons story
4: A parallel economy
5: Stop the invasions!
6: The myopia of money
7: Human nature and the commons
8: Common property
9: Takers and givers
10: The community of goods
11: Conservative commoners, once
Part Two: Practice
12: Accounting for common wealth
13: Tollbooths of the mind
14: Subsistence from the commons
15: Build it and they will sit
16: Sidewalks of the information age
17: Reallocating time
18: Service banking
19: Who owns the beach?
20: From alleys to commons
21: New institutions needed
22: Seeds of a commons movement
Afterword by David Bollier
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index
About the Author
About the Editor
About On The Commons
About West Marin Commons

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