The Ontology of the Intellectual Commons

This chapter formulates a processual ontology of the intellectual commons, by examining the substance, elements, tendencies and manifestations of their being. The first part of the chapter introduces the various definitions of the concept, identifying the inherent elements and characteristics of the intellectual commons. Its second part focuses on the elements that constitute the totalities of the intellectual commons. Its third part emphasises their structural tendencies. Finally, the fourth and last part of the chapter deals with the various manifestations of the intellectual commons in the domains of culture, science and technology. Overall it proceeds by pointing out the tendencies and manifestations of the intellectual commons in the context of their dialectical interrelation with capital and commodity markets. This chapter is an analysis of the elements of personhood, work, value and community within the intellectual commons, which bear moral significance. It thus constitutes the ontological basis for the normative theory of the intellectual commons developed in the study.

Conclusion

The intellectual commons exhibit propensities with a positive potential for society, bearing ethical substance but are in need of protection and advancement under the auspices of law. Theories of the intellectual commons provide substantial justifications for the promotion of commons-oriented institutions in contemporary societies. In this chapter the author details afresh the tendencies, manifestations and moral dimensions of the intellectual commons and how the social research in this book provides empirical evidence about the existence of distinct sequences and circuits of social value circulating. This leads directly to the justification of an Intellectual Commons Law. What might be the fundamentals of such a new body of law? The crucial first step, it is argued, would be the reconstitution of the public domain as a common space of sharing, collaboration, innovation, and freedom of expression through policies for its protection, expansion and enrichment. Secondly, a commons-oriented legal framework ought to unconditionally recognise and protect the creative practices within commons-based peer production and guarantee the characteristics of societal constitutionalism encountered in intellectual commons communities. Finally, commons-oriented legal institutions ought to introduce sets of extensive rights to access, work upon and transform information, knowledge and culture for non-commercial purposes. The chapter concludes with recommendations for future legal research focusing on particular fields within commons-oriented policymaking reimagining the commons-based elements already present within intellectual property law proposing their reconstruction in a novel and systematic way into an independent commons-oriented body of law.

The Social Value of the Intellectual Commons: Conclusions on Commons-Based Value

Elaborating on key findings of previous chapters this chapter proposes more abstract statements on commons-based value, its sources, forms and mode of circulation and, finally, the value crisis challenging the interrelation between intellectual commons and capital. It is structured into the five following sections. The first offers a working definition of commons-based value in accordance with the findings of the research. The second determines productive communal activity as the source of commons-based value. The third analyses the forms of commons-based value. The fourth sketches out the basic characteristics of the mode of commons-based value circulation. The fifth and final substantive section examines the crises of value encountered in the sphere of the intellectual commons. Overall, this chapter offers a social theory of commons-based value circulation with normative dimensions in respect of the morality of the intellectual commons. With empirical data it confirms the presence of an alternative proto-mode of value circulation based on the intellectual commons, which supports the reproduction of the intellectual bases of our societies in dialectical interrelation to the dominant capitalist mode thus thereby rendering commons-based value visible to activists, researchers and policymakers and fuelling practices, policies and laws that might truly unleash their potential.

Social Value of the Intellectual Commons: Dimensions of Commons-Based Value

The book proceeds in this chapter to present extensive elaboration of the research findings on the sequences and circuits of commons-based value within and beyond the communities under examination. Four sections of the chapter offer an analysis of collected research data as a basis to ground findings in relation to each of these four dimensions of commons-based values. The concluding section elicits general findings on the circulation of commons-based value, arising from common characteristics found in all four dimensions. Overall, the findings of the research show that social value within and beyond intellectual commons communities is circulated in specific forms, which can be revealed through social research and depicted in general formulae. The key finding of the chapter is that commons-based value circulates in the form of economic, social, cultural and political values and these alternative circuits of value have both inherent moral value and are beneficial for society.

Towards a Normative Theory of the Intellectual Commons

Recapitulating earlier chapters that established the social value of commons-based activity the chapter offers a unified normative theory of the intellectual commons in support of an intellectual commons law. As the normative denouement of the book, this chapter down the foundations for the critical normative theory of the intellectual commons and the moral justification of an intellectual commons law and is structured into six interlinked sections starting with a statement of the basic tenets of a critical normative theory of the intellectual commons. The subsequent four sections examine the normative dimensions of the intellectual commons, i.e. personhood, work, value and community. Concluding sections briefly outline the contours of an intellectual commons law in alignment with the normative evaluations of the chapter. The ethical arguments of the model overall have established the moral grounds and present the framework for a distinct and independent body of law for the protection and promotion of the intellectual commons beyond the inherent limitations of intellectual property law.

Cultural Commons and the Law from the Renaissance to Postmodernity: A Case Study

The fourth chapter of the book narrates the history of culture from the prism of the intellectual commons. It thus shifts the focus of analysis from the enclosures of intellectual property law to the significance of intellectual sharing and collaboration across history. Further developing arguments of legal historians over the evolution of copyright this chapter unfolds the argument that, despite their prominence, in recent historical periods socialised creativity and inventiveness have been framed by copyright laws in a way that has suppressed the social potential of the intellectual commons, instead of accommodating them. This theorisation of the intellectual commons across history examines the evolution of the regulation of cultural commons from the Renaissance to postmodernity. Its aim is to examine in parallel, on the one hand, the importance of the commons for art and culture and, on the other hand, the discrepancy of their treatment under positive law.

Researching the Social Value of the Intellectual Commons: Methodology and Design

The purpose of this chapter is to outline the methodology of the author’s research that aims to identify the contemporary manifestations of commonification in the circulation of social value and, thus, grasp the actual formations of the intellectual commons, both offline and online, in the current socio-historical context. This research decrypts the generation, circulation, pooling together and redistribution of social value observed in the intellectual commons communities of the research sample, with the aim of showing the importance of the intellectual commons for social reproduction. This chapter sets out the methodological bases and the design of the research in three sections. The first of these spells out the methodological orientation of the research. The second unveils the design of the research. The third describes the coding process followed in relation to data collected from eight Greek intellectual commons communities, which constitute the sample of the current research. Overall, this chapter lays down the methodological foundations of the research and the framework to used elicit the research findings and conclusions exhibited in the following chapters and thus supports its overall normative argumentation that the intellectual commons have significant moral value, which justifies their independent protection and promotion by the law.

The Social Value of the Intellectual Commons: Commons-Based and Monetary Value Dialectics

What are the characteristics and manifestations of the intellectual commons? This chapter investigates the dialectics between commons-based and monetary values, in an effort to specify the mutual influences between them and to answer this question. It proceeds with an analysis of the dialectics between commons-based and monetary values, as recorded in the study. It also deals with the comparison of value circulation between the offline and online communities of the sample. Its key finding is that commons-based value circuits are in constant contestation with monetary values in communities of the intellectual commons. Furthermore, the chapter offers a view of the actual forms that such contestation takes and its impact on the evolution of the intellectual commons. As a corollary, the current chapter on commons-based and monetary value dialectics reveals that communities of the intellectual commons formulate their own specific modes of value circulation and value pooling, which come into contentious interrelation with the corresponding mode of commodity and capital circulation and accumulation. Such a confrontation at the core of this dialectic permeates and frames the communities of the intellectual commons that are suppressed by the dominant value system of commodity markets and its universal equivalent of value in the form of money. Such pressure, may even lead to the extinction of intellectual commons communities, comes into contradiction with the overall conclusion regarding their social value and potential. Yet communities of the intellectual commons contain and emanate a wealth of social values, which ought to be protected through legal means.

Theories of the Intellectual Commons

Noting the growth of academic interest in the concept of the commons this chapter introduces the main theoretical trends that have been formulated in relation to the analysis of the intellectual commons and their relation with capital. In this context, four families of theories are distinguished on the grounds of their epistemological foundations, their analytical tools with regard to social actors, social structures and the dynamics between them, their normative criteria and, finally, their perspectives on social change. Rational choice theories draw from the work of Elinor Ostrom offering a perspective of complementarity between commons and capital. Neoliberal theories elaborate on the profit-maximising opportunities of the intellectual commons and further highlight their capacities of acting as a fix to capital circulation/accumulation in intellectual property-enabled commodity markets. Social democratic theories propose the forging of a partnership between a transformed state and the communities of the commons and put forward specific transition plans for a commons-oriented society. Critical theories conceptualise the productive patterns encountered within intellectual commons as a proto-mode of production which is a direct expression of the advanced productive forces of the social intellect and has the potential to open up alternatives to capital. In the conclusion, of the chapter the four theoretical frameworks are compared, with the aim of formulating a strong theory of the intellectual commons evaluated from the standpoint of their approach to social change. Critical tenets from each theory are utilised as the bedrock for the moral justification of an intellectual commons law.