Understanding Knowledge as a Commons: From Theory to Practice is an edited volume that explores how knowledge functions as a shared social resource in the digital era. Edited by Charlotte Hess and Elinor Ostrom, the book assembles contributions from experts across multiple disciplines to examine knowledge commons—how to conceptualize, protect, and build them. The work addresses a critical tension: while digital technology enables unprecedented access to information through the internet, simultaneously knowledge faces greater restrictions through intellectual property legislation, overpatenting, licensing, and preservation challenges.
The book's core argument is that viewing knowledge as a commons provides essential frameworks for understanding both the limitless possibilities of shared knowledge and the threats it faces. Contributors consider the concept historically while offering analytical frameworks grounded in social-ecological systems theory. The 12 chapters are organized into three thematic parts addressing conceptualization, protection, and development of knowledge commons.
Elinor Ostrom, a 2009 Nobel Prize laureate in Economic Sciences, brings groundbreaking research on how ordinary people can collectively manage shared resources. The volume synthesizes this analytical approach with contemporary concerns about digital knowledge access, open scholarship, intellectual property reform, and information preservation in the 21st century.
Editors: Charlotte Hess (Director, Digital Library of the Commons, Indiana University) and Elinor Ostrom (Arthur F. Bentley Professor of Political Science, Indiana University)
Publication Year: 2011
Publisher: MIT Press
Pages: 382
Format: Edited Volume with Multi-Disciplinary Contributions
ISBN-13: 9780262516037
ISBN-10: 0262516039
Available Through:
Open Access Status: Available through institutional licenses and library systems; chapters available through academic repositories