Dr. David Martin Featured in The Wealth of the Commons: A World Beyond Market and State

Date:  Wed, 2012-10-03

Dr. David Martin’s essay entitled “Emancipating Innovation Enclosures: The Global Innovation Commons” was recently published in the the English version of an anthology of essays, The Wealth of the Commons: A World Beyond Market and State, by David Bollier. Dr. Martin’s essay discusses the various ways in which patents merely represent social contracts that manage market scarcity and thereby profit when used as litigation weapons. Mr. Bollier and Silke Helfrich, a German colleague, had been working on the translation of the book for nearly a year and a half and it’s release comes with great anticipation and excitement.

“Never before have so many different international voices about the commons been brought together in one volume. The Wealth of the Commons consists of 73 essays by a diverse roster of international activists, academics and project leaders. It consists of descriptions of specific commons innovations, essays on the theory and economics of commons, accounts of different types of enclosures around the world, and much else.”

We are between an old world that no longer works and a new one which is struggling to be born. Surrounded by centralized hierarchies on the one hand and predatory markets on the other, people around the globe are searching for alternatives. The Wealth of the Commons explains how millions of commoners have organized to defend their forests and fisheries, reinvent local food systems, organize productive online communities, reclaim public spaces, improve environmental stewardship and re-imagine the very meaning of “progress” and governance. In short: how they’ve built their commons. The hope is that the book will help pave the pathway for more robust discussions in political policy and activist circles which are beyond market and state as the only feasible solutions.

For more information or where to purchase The Wealth of the Commons, please visit https://store.collectivecopies.com/store/show/001.