This is Part 1 of a two-parter, about how the housing crisis causes debt-bondage and wage-slavery, and how the housing Commons can release people from debt and give them freedom to do what they know needs to be done. Read more

Will Ruddick of Grassroots Economics talks about the French mutual aid tradition of Corvées. Read more

How likely is financial collapse? Matthew Slater, blogger and co-author of the Credit Commons white paper, looks into it: Read more

Dave Darby of Stroud Commons and Lowimpact.org talks with Rosie Bristow and Nick Evans of Fantasy Fibre Mill, working to resurrect the flax / linen industry in the UK, as a commons. Read more

The catastrophic problems of privatised English water companies are well known. Sewerage function and drinking water supply are now more deficient than even before privatisation. Terminal failure was in-built from the start, within the cultural, operational, & regulatory processes applied. Correcting these foundational criteria can help inform the quickest resolution. Read more

There’s huge overlap between the principles of agroecology and of commoning, and growth in the commons movement could mean a shift towards agroecology and away from damaging industrial agriculture. Read more

The commons is a movement to create a different world, not just the same system with a few tweaks to make it more bearable. If successful, obviously there will be entities out there that will try to undermine it, buy it and ultimately, to crush it. But there are aspects to the commons model that will, I think, make it more resistant to this than existing models. Read more

Dil Green is a founder member of Mutual Credit Services, who are working with Stroud Commons to design models for the commons economy for various sectors of the economy. This article first appeared on his blog 5 years ago, but it’s so relevant to the current commons movement, that we’re re-posting it here. Read more

We’ve put out requests for help before – in blog articles, at public events and via word of mouth. And they worked. In Stroud, we now have a core group of 10 people and three sector groups – housing commons, land common and leisure commons, with 8-10 people each. Read more

Support the lowimpact community – help sustain our site and continue our membership. Read more

A Festival of Commoning in the UK: Stroud, Gloucestershire, September 13/14/15 2024. The time is right for a Festival of the Commons. Read more

We were invited to give a presentation at the Bath Royal Literary & Scientific Institution on Jan 9th. Here’s the transcript and slides. Read more

In Brett Scott’s blog post, The War on Informality, he talks about his impressions of London after some time away, how it’s becoming more and more difficult to escape surveillance capitalism, and how it’s seeping into every area of Londoners’ lives. Read more

The word ‘commons’ can mean different things to different people. We’ve been working with specialists to help build the commons economy, so we’d like to concisely describe what we mean, and how you can join us. Read more

Commons ideas have gone down well in Stroud and we have thriving groups in various sectors. We’ve been approached by formative groups in several towns in the UK and in other countries. Read more

We’d like to see the commons economy grow to allow people (especially young people) to stay in their communities, rather than having to move to big cities to work in the corporate sector and pay extortionate rents. Here, Paul Jennings (who we’re liaising with about the commons in Llandeilo) talks about the concept of ‘Restanza’… Continue reading Restanza and the cultural commons Read more

I read the first edition of this book around 12 years ago. It changed my life and put me on the path to where I am now – trying to build the commons economy. New 2024 edition, free online. Read more

Read about the progress with a self-build project from RUSS in Ladywell. Shaped by future residents from the start. Read more

Every neighbourhood had a friendly society. At their height, just before WW1 9 million people were members of friendly societies in the UK! Read more

This is a draft outline of a design for an energy commons in any town – an energy sector owned by communities, providing affordable, locally-generated, renewable energy. Read more