Crazy Town16 Jul 2025

Crazy Town Classics - Lord of the Swans: The Tragedy of the Enclosure of the Commons

The “tragedy of the commons” is an idea that has so thoroughly seeped into culture and law that it seems normal for people and corporations to own land, water, and even whole ecosystems. But there’s a BIG problem: the “tragedy” part of it has been debunked – it really should be the triumph of the commons. Learn the origin story of privatization and explore the true meaning of commons and how to manage them for sustainability and equity. Also check out our suggestions for championing the commons (beyond Robin Hood’s strategy of stabbing the aristocracy). Originally recorded on 2/10/22.

Sources/Links/Notes:

The oddity of the queen’s ownership of swans
More about the swans
An Act Concerning Swans (1482)
Simon Fairlie wrote the article “A Short History of Enclosure in Britain” in The Land (2009).
Briony McDonagh and Carl Griffin wrote “Occupy! Historical geographies of property, protest and the commons, 1500-1850,” Journal of Historical Geography (2016).
Stephen Knight of the University of Melbourne writes about Robin Hood and the Forest Laws.
Stephen Quilley & Katharine Zywert wrote the article “Livelihood, Market and State: What Does a Political Economy Predicated on the ‘Individual-in-Group-in-Place’ Actually Look Like?,” Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(15), pages 1-23, July 2019.
Munro Fraser and Thomas Mande wrote a report called The Commons in a Wellbeing Economy, a briefing paper published by the Wellbeing Economy Alliance.
David Bollier wrote the outstanding and super-readable book The Commoner’s Catalog for Changemaking: Tools for the Transitions Ahead.
On the Commons has been helping to build a commons movement since 2001.
Peter Barnes has written many articles and books about property rights and the commons.
“Elinor Ostrom’s 8 rules for managing the commons” based on Derek Wall’s book Elinor Ostrom’s Rules for Radicals

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