The Return of the Common(er)s
Part 5—the final instalment—of our Sunday* launch series introducing the Commons
*This week exceptionally published on a Wednesday. 🙂
Tl;dr: Now is the time to transcend the failing systems around us—not by fighting them, but by quietly building something better. This closing article explores how an alternative social and economic order is forming through an emerging network of countless local initiatives—and offers practical entry points for anyone to take part.
This is the final article of our five-part series exploring the Commons as a practical, community-led alternative for meeting shared needs. Over the past weeks, we’ve explored the Commons from different angles:
In Part 1, we examined the polycrisis and why both markets and governments have failed to adequately address it.
In Part 2, we rediscovered the Commons as an ancient, third mode of provisioning based on community stewardship.
In Part 3, we explored a broad range of tools—financial, legal, governance, cultural, and technological—that help commons endure and thrive.
In Part 4, we saw the Commons come to life across the world, from alpine meadows to the code running our digital infrastructure.
Introduction
“What is my case? Simply that our most important task is to get off our present collision course. And who is there to tackle such a task? I think every one of us, whether old or young, powerful or powerless, rich or poor, influential or uninfluential. To talk about the future is useful only if it leads to action now“.
—E.F. Schumacher (in Small is Beautiful)
Written in 1973, these words ring more urgent than ever today. They remind us that what counts is action, not talk. (I suspect Schumacher would be dismayed to see that, half a century later, we’re still mostly talking.)
But these words also remind us that such action begins not in grand plans, but in the everyday choices of ordinary people—like you and me.
This final piece therefore turns the lens to us: why is now the right time? How can we reclaim our capacity to act in a way that isn’t destined to failure? And what are the practical actions, however large or small, that each of us can take?
Now Is the Time
Michel Bauwens’ hypothesis of The Pulsation of the Commons holds that history moves in alternating cycles of enclosure and re-commoning. Drawing on historical evidence, he shows that when the extractive forces of markets and states overreach to the point of exhausting vital regional resources, local populations step in to reorganise the economic and social order around Commons-based institutions and practices—thus restoring natural ecosystems and protecting resources for the long term. Ironically, these periods of regeneration then create the conditions for a new cycle of enclosure and extraction—and so the pattern continues.
It appears that we are living through such a pulse today. Yet, there are two major differences to previous cycles.
First, as Bauwens notes, our modern globalised economy has reached not just regional but planetary limits, creating a situation of near-total exhaustion on a global scale. There are no new frontiers left to exploit, save AI perhaps—but even its abstract code relies on physical data centres powered by the ecological systems that underpin all human activity.
Second—and this is the good news—there is now a unique convergence of enabling conditions that create fertile ground for a profound transformation:
Powerful tools: We’ve seen a collection of them in Part 3, but the Internet and our digital infrastructures stand out as key enablers of unprecedented civic coordination, making it possible to share knowledge globally and turn it into action locally.
Pressing needs: Communities around the world are facing immediate challenges—affordable housing, clean energy, healthy food, humane care, social connection—that our dominant systems of provisioning are failing to adequately meet.
A new readiness to act: After years of disillusionment and crisis, more people are seeking agency and meaning through active participation in something tangible and constructive, in something that goes beyond symbolic gestures or activism that rarely moves the needle.
The Next Pulse: How to Restore the Commons
Transcendence: Don’t Fight the Old; Build the New
“We seek not to destroy capitalism, nor to reform it, but to transcend it—to consciously and rapidly evolve past it. […] Transcendence requires us, simply, to build the best possible future, starting right here, right now.”
— Dil Green
The Commons does not seek abrupt revolution or gradual reform, but peaceful transcendence. As Dil Green writes in The Transcender Manifesto, genuine change happens not by fighting the old, but by quietly building something better: something that is more meaningful, more accessible, more affordable, more sustainable—in short, something that draws in people by its benefits, not its ideology.
To reclaim the Commons, then, is not a call to resistance, but to creation. Rather than wasting energy opposing failing systems, it asks us to proactively develop alternatives that work because they meet real needs and are more naturally embedded in the ecosystems on which they depend.
Quietly laying the foundations of a new order gradually renders the old structures dispensable and obsolete. This process requires no permission, no central coordination, no advance design, and not even a fixed destination. It starts whenever people unite around creating something they genuinely need.
This spirit of transcendence is already visible in the thousands of projects that combine collective participation, reciprocity, and care. As these efforts multiply and connect, they begin to form what Czech dissident Václav Benda once called a parallel polis: an alternative social structure that gradually emerges alongside the dominant system.
Transvestment: Building Bridges From the Old To the New
Every transition needs bridges. If transcendence is the ethos, then transvestment is the method—the process of moving resources, capital, and energy from the primary money-based economy into the new collaborative economy.
In practice, transvestment means the gradual conversion of assets from private ownership to permanently mutualised forms of ownership. Using whatever legal, financial, and social tools available, it transitions wealth, productive capacity, and governance rights back into shared hands.
For instance, a community land trust (CLT) does this by acquiring land and holding it in perpetuity for community benefit; a housing cooperative does similarly by buying properties that are then taken off the market forever. Through this process of de-commodification, we begin to reclaim parts of the natural, economic, social, and cultural commons that were once enclosed.
But transvestment not only attracts capital from the ‘old’ economy to the ‘new’. It also transforms it when crossing the bridge. As Dil Green explains:
“If we raise investment in pounds and dollars, which we use to build the new economy […] and pay fair returns on those ‘fiat currency’ investments in the currency of the new economy—in use-credit obligations (UCOs) and mutual credit units (MCU)—then in order to access the value of those returns the investors will have to become participants in the new economy.”
In other words, value crosses the bridge once—and stays. Every act of transvestment thus strengthens the parallel polis by keeping value circulating and regenerating locally. Freed from the pressures of exponential growth, it can slowly multiply as needed.
From Local Experimentation to Archipelagos of the Commons
Lasting change of the magnitude and complexity required can never come from any single plan. Social resilience, like ecological resilience, arises from redundancy and variation: the more local variants that try different solutions to similar problems, the greater the chances that some will endure. Just as the biosphere maintains niches to weather uncertainty, the Commons does the same for society.
Local experimentation is central to its logic. Each community organises around its own place, context, resources, and culture. By embracing diversity, the Commons has the capacity not just to endure shocks but to evolve through them—a quality our world increasingly demands. Like nature, it learns, adapts, and replicates through feedback: people see what works (or doesn’t), build on it, and others copy. Every local success or failure thus potentially contributes to collective learning—provided it’s shared.
This latter point is crucial, because it’s how social movements that achieve lasting behavioural change actually grow.
Research by sociologist Damon Centola shows that meaningful social change rarely begins through viral messaging or celebrity influence. It starts on the margins—in small circles where people know and trust each other—and spreads through strong, overlapping social ties. It also expands through lived demonstration: people can see and feel the benefits for themselves and then choose to imitate, adapt, or share.
The Commons can grow in the same way. By starting at the edges—in locally-grounded communities experimenting with tangible solutions—it quietly spreads through personal networks of trust. When people experience that cooperation can lower costs, improve quality, and create a sense of community belonging, then others take note, imitate, and adjust. And so it gradually replicates, organically and by way of example, steadily expanding its sphere of influence.
The change that our world so desperately needs is thus not decreed or engineered. It is a self-reinforcing, bottom-up process that gradually transforms the centre from the periphery.
As these examples ripple outward through local networks, they start to connect. Over time, these initiatives interlink, forming what might be called archipelagos of the Commons: small islands of shared wealth and collective governance that demonstrate their benefits through lived proof. In moments of crisis, they may serve as critical fallback systems; in moments of stability, they show what a regenerative and collaborative economy looks like in practice.
As Dutch designer Thomas Lommée once said:
“The next big thing will be a lot of small things.”
Through transvestment, these archipelagos grow stronger and more connected. This emerging parallel polis does not reject existing institutions, but forms the basis of an alternative social economy that complements—and may ultimately replace—parts of the old. As more assets and capital shift, the dominant order built on growth and extraction gradually contracts, along with its negative externalities—waste, pollution, alienation, and systemic fragility, to just name a few.
This transformation is already underway. Let’s now see how each of us can take part.
Paths To Engagement: Choose Your Entry Point(s)
There is no single path into the Commons, but there’s certainly a way in for everyone. Below I offer some starting points to explore, depending on your situation. Feel free to skip to what speaks most to you.
Note: This is a modest attempt to map a few practical entry points. Where possible, I’ve included links to additional resources, though much remains to be added. If you know of a project, resource, or guide worth featuring, please let me know (by email or in the comments below) and I’ll update the article accordingly. For other questions or discussions, you’re welcome to join our new forum—it’s free to use and open to everyone.
For the New and Curious:
Commoning begins whenever people come together to create something of shared value. This can be something as banal as a conversation at a bus stop between strangers. That alone won’t change the world, of course, but the point is that many of us are already commoning without calling it that.
The first step, then, is simply to notice this: to recognise that you’re likely already part of some commons, in one form or another; and to remember that it’s the small acts of reciprocity and trust, however modest, that form the everyday bedrock of a Commons-based world.
You can:
Learn: Begin by exploring what the Commons means—learning its language helps make the invisible visible. Try accessible resources such as David Bollier’s New to Commons? or LowImpact’s knowledge bank.
Observe: Look around you with new eyes. What’s already shared or communal in your life: gardens, a food co-op, neighbourhood groups, or a digital tool you’re using? Visit these communities to see commoning in action.
Take part: Offer some of your time, skills, or savings to a local or digital commons. If none exists nearby, consider starting one yourself: gather a few friends, neighbours, or colleagues who share a need or idea, and see what you can create together. For inspiration and practical guidance, see Helping Commons Groups Form and Grow, Shareable’s How to Share and Library of Things, the Urban Commons Cookbook, or How can I take part in the Commons Transition?.
Share: Talk about what you find. Tell stories of the Commons in your networks. Normalise mutual care and shared stewardship in everyday language, and invite others in. A short conversation, online post, or community event can ripple outward more than you might think!
For Professionals, Storytellers, and Policy Shapers
The world needs people from every field to combine professional expertise with community purpose. Whether you work in law, finance, design, technology, research, media, or policy, your skills can play a crucial role in helping develop, launch, sustain, and grow successful projects. What matters is reorienting the tools you already use—contracts, code, policies, or stories—in service of the Commons.
You can:
Build and design: Support the development of legal, financial, cultural, or digital frameworks that enable thriving commons. Help projects formalise their governance, protect shared assets, or set up transvestment models. Share existing templates and guides, or create new ones. Co-develop tools and infrastructure with active projects: prototype software, draft accounting or tax frameworks, or design practical playbooks for communities and users.
Communicate and shape culture: if you’re a communicator, educator, or artist, use your craft to make the logic of the Commons visible and relatable. Translate complex systems into human stories. Share local successes and case studies that show commoning as both practical and joyful, inviting others in. Help develop and spread a shared vocabulary of commoning that people can recognise and use in daily life. Create educational materials and curricula to pass on what’s been learned.
Research and advocate: Study and document what works and why. Gather empirical data and evidence that demonstrate the economic, social, and ecological value of commoning. Raise awareness in policy circles and translate local experience into proposals that institutions can act on. Help decision-makers recognise the Commons as a credible, complementary mode of provisioning—and align procurement, taxation, and regulatory frameworks accordingly.
Advise and embed: Offer advice and support to emerging or established commons initiatives. Mentor practitioners, share expertise through open platforms, and bring commons principles into your own field so they can spread by example.
For inspiration, explore resources like the Commons Transition Primer, Mutual Credit Services, The Commons Social Change Library, the Sustainable Economies Law Center, the vast library of Community Commons, or the Community-Led Co-design Kit.
Note: I’m also involved in a new project (Commons Lab) that is looking for collaborators across all of the above domains. We work closely together with Stroud Commons and Local Loop Merseyside to develop and pilot robust models for Commons-based systems across key sectors. Please reach out if you’d like to learn more or get involved.
For Community Organisers and Changemakers:
If you’re part of a neighbourhood initiative, non-profit organisation, campaign, or movement working for social or ecological change, you’re likely already practicing a form of commoning. Rather than competing for attention or resources, our efforts can complement one other: diversity, after all, builds resilience and leads to better outcomes for the whole. By recognising that we’re ultimately working toward the same larger goal, a more intentional exploration of shared principles can help align and connect our work, strengthening our collective capacity to create lasting change.
You can:
Frame your work in Commons terms: Consider adopting the language of the Commons—collective stewardship, mutual care, shared benefit, reciprocity, peer governance—to make your goals clearer and more relatable. The Commons transcends ideological divides and can feel more inviting than, for instance, ‘degrowth’ or ‘post-growth’ labels. A shared vocabulary helps bridge differences, communicate more effectively, and—importantly—foster a stronger sense of common purpose.
Explore and experiment: Take stock of how your project works: who contributes, who benefits, who decides? Clarify these relationships and note where they already reflect or embody Commons principles. Then test Commons-based tools or models that could strengthen your operations. Adapt them to your specific context and see what fits (or doesn’t). Treat each experiment as a contribution to collective learning.
Share and exchange knowledge: Open your networks and experiences so others can benefit. Record your processes, tools, funding pathways, and lessons learned. Create short guides, toolkits, or case studies and publish them through open platforms. Offer guidance to emerging projects—or seek advice yourself.
Partner and collaborate: Map where your work overlaps with Commons initiatives and other aligned projects to identify opportunities to reinforce each other’s efforts rather than duplicate them. Form partnerships to pool resources, co-host events or campaign together. For inspiration and examples, see The Commoner’s Catalog for Changemaking.
For Business Owners and Organisations
Remember that the Commons are not opposed to business or markets, but to large, faceless corporations that take far more than they contribute. Small and medium-sized enterprises are the backbone of the real economy: by running one, you provide livelihoods and stability within your community. This also means you’re uniquely placed to help shift the economy toward a more human-scale and sustainable model—while strengthening your own long-term resilience and prospects.
You can:
Reduce dependency on traditional finance: Join a credit clearing or mutual credit network to improve cash flow, build local partnerships, and strengthen resilience in times of financial uncertainty (see B2B barter exchanges). Or issue high-street vouchers to raise capital directly from your customers—securing advance sales and building loyalty while keeping value circulating locally.
Adopt open and collaborative practices: Use open licenses to share what can be shared—documentation, non-sensitive processes, or research—to lower barriers and invite innovation. Partner with other enterprises, cooperatives, or community initiatives to share infrastructure and pool resources. Mutualise logistics, storage, or production facilities, or create shared distribution platforms wherever collaboration creates mutual benefit. For inspiration, see 10 Ways to Accelerate the P2P and Commons Economy.
Support your local ecosystem: look for ways your business can support local initiatives. Partner with community projects and explore where local commons—such as food co-ops, energy collectives, or community workshops—can serve as suppliers or collaborators. Contribute surplus goods and materials, offer financial support, or share time, skills, or spaces where they’re needed.
Explore shared ownership models: Find ways to recognise contribution and loyalty beyond standard contracts. Consider different forms of mutual ownership or profit-sharing models that give workers, suppliers, or partners a real stake in shared outcomes. These structures can help preserve your mission, prevent extractive buyouts, and align incentives toward shared wealth creation. For pioneering models, see steward-ownership or Enspiral.
For Stewards of Capital
If you manage capital—whether investments, endowments, or philanthropic funds—you hold one of the most powerful levers for change. By shifting resources from extractive circuits into regenerative ones, you can help steer the transition towards a more sustainable and resilient economy. This is not an act of charity: the Commons offers opportunities to invest in tangible, productive assets that provide reliable returns, while also generating lasting social and ecological value that lies beyond measurement.
You can:
Align mandates with purpose: Review your institution’s investment policies and consider updating them to explicitly include social and ecological purpose, recognising Commons-aligned approaches as legitimate and impactful within their scope. This may also involve revising acceptable asset classes to recognise instruments such as community shares, community bonds, or use-credit obligations (UCOs) as eligible investments.
Finance transvestment: Use familiar mechanisms—grants, low-interest or revolving loans, loan guarantees, or first-loss capital—to help communities decommodify essential resources such as housing, land, and energy. This strengthens local economies while generating steady, tangible returns grounded in productive use rather than speculation. Consider also providing seed funding or other financial support for projects that build the infrastructure for other Commons initiatives to launch, mature, and replicate. By developing legal frameworks, practical toolkits, open digital systems, or training networks, these enablers act as impact multipliers—unlocking capacity across many projects instead of just one.
Invest in the new economy: Channel part of your portfolio into community-based financial assets such as UCOs or cooperative equity. UCOs, in particular, hold the potential to become a new and attractive asset class backed by real productive capacity—think rental units, power generation, or water provision. They offer an inflation-resistant investment with fair, stable returns, while financing community infrastructure that enables local production and long-term resilience. Over time, you might also retain a portion of your returns within this new economy—by participating in mutual credit systems, maintaining a portfolio of exchangeable UCOs, or redeeming them directly in payment for goods and services.
Open investor networks: Use your position and relationships to spread awareness of Commons-based finance and investment models. Introduce these ideas within professional and philanthropic circles to broaden the pool of available capital and make participation accessible to smaller investors. Every conversation, presentation, or demonstrated example helps legitimise the Commons as a credible investment domain, expanding the collective capacity to finance real, lasting change. For inspiration and concrete guidance on models and more, see Transform Finance.
For Municipalities and Public Institutions
If you work in public service—whether as mayor, councillor, city planner, civil servant, or administrator in a national or regional agency—you likely face a lot of pressures: mounting responsibilities, limited budgets, overstretched staff, suffocating bureaucracy… Yet you also hold the key to unlocking a vast reservoir of civic energy. By seeing citizens not merely as service recipients but as active co-creators of public value, you can revive civic engagement and, at the same time, strengthen your own mandate— improving wellbeing, safety, public finances, and trust in institutions.
You can:
Adopt the Partner State mindset: Recognise communities and Commons-based initiatives as legitimate partners in managing public resources. Develop frameworks that institutionalise collaboration and integrate Commons principles into policy, regulation, and procurement, creating an enabling policy environment at all levels. Review existing public services—housing, care, education, culture, local infrastructure—and identify where involving communities could improve quality, reach, and efficiency.
Enable rather than control: Being closest to citizens, municipalities and city councils hold the greatest leverage for Public–Commons partnerships. Support pilots, allocate public spaces, and provide access to land, buildings, or micro-grants that help community initiatives take root. Simplify regulations and shift from bureaucratic oversight to accountability built on transparency and trust. Encourage and reward social and ecological value creation by recognising stewardship as a form of public service—fostering safer, more welcoming neighbourhoods with stronger social cohesion and a higher quality of life. See the Reflow Handbook, LabGov’s City as a Commons, or Commons Transition’s library for case studies and guidance.
Foster participation and co-governance: Create participatory structures such as neighbourhood councils, citizens’ assemblies, or co-management boards that give residents a genuine voice in decisions that directly affect them. This not only restores trust but also improves outcomes by drawing on local knowledge and experience. For inspiration and practical methods, see Involve or Participedia.
Support enabling infrastructure: Use public funding, research institutions, and development agencies to strengthen the foundations of community-led innovation. Universities and public labs can act as neutral hosts for shared infrastructure and data commons, study successful models, evaluate pilots, and translate lessons into policy. Fund intermediary organisations that offer frameworks, tools, and training for new initiatives. Make insights and research findings openly available so others can learn, adapt, and build on proven models.
Coming Full Circle
For me personally, this has been a journey of rediscovery.
About ten years ago, I began my career as a researcher exploring the early days of cryptocurrencies. With the enthusiasm and naïveté of youth, I was drawn in by the promise of a new financial system free from corporate or state control, governed instead by the communities it was built to serve. But that vision was gradually eclipsed as greed and speculation took hold, leaving little of the spirit that first inspired it. (My sober verdict today is that, with a few honourable exceptions, it has become a worse version of the very system it sought to replace.)
Disillusioned, I went on an extended sabbatical to step back, reflect, and do some soul searching. That pause took me back full circle to the simple question that first set me on this path some fifteen years ago: how can money, credit, and finance be made to serve people and planet, rather than the other way around? And through this renewed exploration, I eventually found the language and practice of the Commons—offering both a practical pathway for action and a broader institutional framework to guide it.
Along the way, many people were generous with their time in meeting my curiosity. And in the true spirit of commoning, some of those conversations grew into a small community with shared purpose and vision—of which this Substack is but one outcome. Now, I feel humbled that my work might help others find their own way into this shared journey.
Why am I sharing this? Because each of us has something to offer. Some build, some organise, some teach, some simply listen. The world needs all of it. What matters is that we begin now, right where we are, and trust that our small, steady actions will connect with others into something infinitely larger than we can—or dare to—imagine.
As Charles Eisenstein reminds us in his wonderful book The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible:
“We are all here to contribute our gifts toward something greater than ourselves, and will never be content unless we are.”
Perhaps that, in the end, is what this is all about: a genuine attempt to create, together, the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible.
So much great stuff here, Michel. I particularly value your experienced reflection on finance, transvestment and (taking down) crypto.
Agree with Simon, so much in here, great finale to the series. Will need to read again and follow some of the links I don't know yet. And I too am grateful for you talking from your experience as a cryptocurrency researcher.
As for transvestment, for anybody who has to do with philanthropy (or interested), the book 'Post Capitalist Philanthropy' is a great read, or listen to David Bollier's podcast with the authors Lynn Murphy and Alnoor Ladha
https://www.bollier.org/blog/can-we-move-beyond-philanthrocapitalism