The Commons Conference

An Academic-Community Event on Privatization and the Public Domain

April 28--30, 2006

University of Victoria, BC

A committee of students, researchers, and community members are organizing an interdisciplinary conference on contemporary definitions of "the commons" to be held at UVic the weekend of April 28-30th, 2006.

The concept of the commons derives from the system of collective ownership of pastureland in England, which thrived until a series of enclosure acts divided them in the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries. Enclosure acts transformed society -displacing labourers, forcing peasants into the market society, providing a new economic base for trade, and ecologically disrupting a diverse arrangement of cultivation, grazing, and wild lands.

The idea of the commons was revived in the 1960s and 70s by the burgeoning environmental movement. It usefully provided a way to express awareness that nature does not respect property lines. New forms of political and economic organization were needed to address the perils of environmental destruction and social alienation. In recent years, advocates of a digital or electronic commons have taken up the term "commons," as well. For example, databases offering open access to medical or scholarly research at public institutions belong "in common" ownership to citizens. However, intellectual property erects new fences around these collective agreements.

In the paths and circuits between these commons - in physical and digital space - lie important, under-theorized ideas about the meaning of the public, collectivity, and communal life that could provide powerful antidotes to the steady encroachments of the private sector into the public domain. This conference seeks to explore these spaces.

Our keynote speaker will be Dr. George Caffentzis, Chair of Philosophy at the University of Southern Maine and outspoken activist on issues of imperialism and war. Caffentzis' critical work exposes the co-optation of "commons" language and activism by those angling to replace neo-liberalism with yet another hegemonic ideology. Caffentzis submits that the critical position to taking up the commons would be that which calls into question the global circulations of capital and power. Caffentzis will be speaking on the evening of Friday, April 28th in an open event that is free to the public.

Saturday will feature presentations by people from across the country: university faculty, graduate students, and community activists. Speakers will present imaginative and practical talks on issues around water privatization, cities, indigenous nationalism, the pharmaceutical industry, open-source software, libraries, immigration, material and immaterial property, seed saving, the role of the public intellectual, governance, art as engagement, the privatization of democratic values and social movements, and other relevant topics. On Sunday the 30th there will be a day of facilitated workshops meant to serve as a space for deeper discussion and strategy. These discussions will focus on conference-participant reflections and will raise questions about how to build and sustain interdisciplinary networks.

The focus of the papers should be on Canadian issues and the role of Canada abroad. Some questions people are invited to address are: Who does/does not occupy a place in the physical and digital commons? What is the role of the state in the renewed commons? How can media become a two-way flow through a commons? Can there be such a thing as quotation marks in art? What other models of ownership are available to oppose commodification? What are the politics of the commons?

We are looking for papers that theorize ideas of "the commons" that respond to, resist or subvert forms of privatizations. Papers should bring to light aspects of social and political control exercised through these
privatizations. Panels will be organized to reflect overlap between issues identified in respective proposals. Each presentation should be 15 - 20 minutes long.

The deadline for submissions is March 10th, 2006. Please email 250 - 300 word abstracts to shiri@forumonpublicdomain.ca.

This conference is also an event. Please feel welcome to attend. A website is currently being designed for the conference and will be on-line soon. Links will be posted from the VIPIRG and Forum websites
(www.forumonpublicdomain.ca or www.vipirg.ca). Watch for registration details.