Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
It can be the air we breathe, or the water we drink. It can be the absence of something we hate, like noise. It can be Wikipedia. It can be an ocean beach. The commons is a realm that lies outside conventional market economics, but that nonetheless creates wealth.
It’s been two years since my dear friend and commons activist Jonathan Rowe went to the gym, came down with an illness and unexpectedly passed away at age 65. Jon was one of the cofounders, in 2002, of the Tomales Bay Institute, later renamed On the Commons. Over the course of the next ten years I learned a great deal about the commons from my many conversations with Jon and from his unfailingly beautiful essays and blog posts. It is a bittersweet experience to re-encounter Jon’s work in all its understated glory in a new book just published.
