[okfn-discuss] Digital Commons panel @ IASC European Regional Conference (Bern, 10-13 May)

Tue Jan 5 10:55:01 UTC 2016

[sorry for x-posting]

Dear commoners,

you'll probably know the IASC: International Association for the Study
on the Commons, in particular for their global conferences on this
topic. Together with the IASC conference organisers we have defined a
panel on Digital Commons. We invite you to submit a paper.

*Digital commons in a ‚glocal’ world*
Panel Convenors: Wouter  Tebbens  (Free  Knowledge  Institute)  Massimo
 Canevacci (University  of  Rome  "La Sapienza" University do Sao Paulo
(IEA-USP)

See in the Call for Papers,
http://conferences.iasc-commons.org/index.php/iasc/IASC_Europe_Bern2016/schedConf/cfp

We think the digital commons perspective should not miss from the very
interesting conference agenda. Therefore we urge you to submit a paper.

Some topics that could relate to the IASC conference in general and to
this panel in particular could for example be the following:
- the effects of current intellectual property regulations (mostly in
the interest of multinational companies and large capitals) on the
digital commons
- the alternative commons-based approaches for sharing digital forms of
knowledge, as pioneeered by the Free Software Movement and nowadays
known in a variety of fields, from Open Standards, to Open Educational
Resources, from Open Design to Open Source Hardware and Free Culture.
- the local resilience based on commons based networks of peers sharing
knowledge, building telecom networks, food cooperatives, etc
- the return of artesanal practices enriched with digital tools
- the combination of global sharing of (industrial) knowledge and
designs with a growing local production
- sustainability by needing less and producing less: the motivations of
peers producing and sharing knowledge as commons generating an abundance
economy, much more satisfying than the consumption society; planned
obsolescence and mass production in general manufacture more than humans
need; bottum up, pull instead of push channeling of human needs with
manufacturing of really needed products
- sustainability by repairing and extending product's lifetime: what
legal challenges do we need to overcome?

These and other topcis would be very welcome for this panel. If in doubt
don't hesitate to contact us.

Below follow further details of the CfP.

- All paper proposals (abstract of 500 words and 5 keywords) have to be
uploaded with indication of the panel they want to participate in until
February 5th via the IASC-conference website
http://conferences.iasc-commons.org.
- The panel should contain max. 5 paper contributions (All panels will
last two hours and will include a maximum of 5 paper contributions. This
implies 15 minutes for each paper contribution and 5 minutes discussion
at the end of each contribution. This structure allows for a discussion
of 20 minutes at the end of each panel).

*********

Commons in a “Glocal” World: Global Connections and Local Responses

Venue: University of Bern, Main Building

Date: 10-13 May 2016

Contact: Tobias Haller

Main theme: Global Connections and Local Responses.

Research on the commons deals either with the development of
institutions for the management of the commons, or with issues related
to global change. While the latter mainly focusses on drivers and
effects of global expansion of capitalist modes of production,
consumption, and societal reproduction, research on institutions for the
management of the commons deals with collective action and the effects
and reactions within local action arenas. However, the entangled
institutional processes through which global and local arenas – referred
to as “glocal” – interlock are not yet addressed in a systematic way.

Europe has been a major driver of “glocal” processes. Therefore, the 4th
Regional European Meeting of the IASC is devoted to global connections
and local responses. It provides a space to advance our understanding of
ongoing “glocal” processes and to analyse historically how commons in
Europe have evolved and adapted to “glocal” changes. By integrating
political ecology with approaches of New Institutionalism and Critical
Theory in Anthropology, Human Geography, Political Science and History,
we propose to investigate the impacts of external changes on the
perception and evaluation of resources by actors related to the commons.
This raises the question of local bargaining power, ideologies and
discourses, and of the selection and crafting of institutional designs,
which in turn affect the access to common-pool resources, as well as the
distribution of benefits related to the management of these resources.

This conference therefore aims to look at the interfaces between local
and global processes in order to bring together research arenas that
have often been kept quite separate until now. We therefore call for
contributions focussing on:

    how global players such as multinational companies and organizations
affect local governance of the commons worldwide
    the role of international law and global trade in shaping the
interface between global actors and institutional processes of local
commons governance
    the impacts of external economic and political changes on the
perception and evaluation of resources and areas by actors related to
the commons
    local resistance and the development of political strategies
countering the transformation of collective into private or state-based
property rights as a consequence of economic and political changes
    the local crafting of institutional designs in global and local
arenas, and how these affect access to and distribution of natural
resources and related benefits among local to global actors using the
commons
    how the encounter of global and local processes affect bargaining
power, ideologies and discourses of global and local actors in governing
sustainability trade-offs.

We especially welcome contributions that aim to address the above
mentioned themes through novel forms of integrating theoretical
approaches. In addition, the focus of the conference will be on a
dialogue among representatives of different academic disciplines (e.g.
geography, social anthropology, history, development studies, economics,
political science, and law) and between academics and non-academic
actors (e.g. practitioners, business representatives, policy makers, or
NGOs).
Accepted panels

We are looking for papers, which refer to the following topics (for a
more extensive description of each panel, click here or download the
call for papers):

A) Features and effects of global (e.g. European) investments on commons
in the world

#01 - Food system impacts on commons from a North–South Perspective

#02 - Extractive and bio-political frontiers: (dense) tropical rain
forests and the transformation of the commons

#03 - Undermining the commons: Transnational Corporations, mining and
impact on commons governance

#04 - Energy and the commons

#05 - The climate change dilemma: Global and local scales in climate science
#06 - Transforming the commons: Business models of large-scale land
Investments

#07 - Land Grabbing – a phenomenon in Europe?
#08 - The impacts of common enclosures on local power relations

#09 - Are Large Scale Land Acquisitions leading to „commons“ and
“resilience-grabbing“? New perspectives on land and water governance
#10 - Large scale investments in land and Infrastructure in Africa, Asia
and Latin America: what are the consequences for the commons - what is
the maneuvering space for collective action?

#11 - European Zoological Gardens, Conservation discourse and the
Commons in the South
#12 - African Farmer-led Irrigation: reframing agricultural investment

B)      Collective action, the commons, and sustainability: What is the
role of bottom-up participatory resource governance
(‘constitutionality’) in Switzerland and in other European political
systems in common-resource governance

#13 - All commoners are equal? The impact of different distributions of
power and social inequalities within common pool institutions on
sustainability and resilience within the premodern era
#14 - Managing Commons: Premodern Perspecitves

#15 - Switzerland as a laboratory for governance innovations in the
management of common pool resources – historical approaches)

#16 - Constitutionality and bottom-up institution building processes:
lessons from Europe
#17 - Common pool resource institutions in the shadow of the State

#18 - Analysis of Collective action in Payment for Ecosystem Services
Contexts

#19 -  Networking, Comparing, and Integrating Urban Commons Initiatives
in Research and Action
#20 - Emergence of Smart cities – a confluence of common and private
resources towards a new definition of urban commons

#21 - Urban commons in a ‚glocal’ world

#22 - Collective action regimes, co-management and the commons

#23 - Collective Action for the Survival of Forest Commons in Europe
#24 - The influence of European and international forest policies,
investments and discourses on local contexts and the counter-responses

#25 - The spiritual dimensions of commons – missing link in scientific
and policy debates?
#26 - Geographical Indications as a tool for providing public goods

C)   Prospects of the commons ‐ Responses to triple crisis (financial,
environmental, and socio-economic)

#27 - Law, Commons and Sustainable Development Goals - Exploring Law’s
Role in Promoting Sustainability of the Commons

#28 - Trade and Commons: an Ambivalent Relationship?

#29 - Environmental justice and the prospect of commons for sustainable
development
#30 - Music and the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Debate

#31 - Commons, conservation, conflict and co-management in Europe
#32 - Blue Communities, a collective action for self-declared principles
of resource governance – potentials and limitations

#33 - Coherence of international laws and trade treaties in respecting
the rights to water and sanitation
#34 - Multinational Corporations and the commons: The Role of Criminal Law

#35 - "Local Knowledge" in Climate Politics: Negotiating Climate
Responsibility
#36 - Dissolving the Commons: Pastoral land rights, state intervention
and international actors in Central Eurasia

#37 - The Commons in (Post-) Conflict Zones
#38 - Digital commons in a ‚glocal’ world

#39 - Theoretical debates on Institutions for the management of the commons

#40 - The world of finance and the commons

#41 - Using evidence from the Land Matrix and other data repositories to
investigate impacts of large-scale land investments on common pool resources

For a more extensive description of each panel, click here or download
the call for papers

    Deadline for submitting paper abstracts is February 5, 2016
    Please submit your paper abstract (500 words) via the IASC
Conference Registration Module: http://conferences.iasc-commons.org
    Please contact us if you have questions: iasc-europe-2016 at cde.unibe.ch

-- 
best regards,

Wouter Tebbens
--
http://freeknowledge.eu
Unlocking the Knowledge Society