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Book part
Publication date: 23 August 2023

Aneel Karnani

‘Tragedy of the commons’ is a powerful concept to analyse a variety of problems related to environmental sustainability. The commons problem can be solved if individuals behave…

Abstract

‘Tragedy of the commons’ is a powerful concept to analyse a variety of problems related to environmental sustainability. The commons problem can be solved if individuals behave altruistically. In the business context, this chapter studies the proposition that corporate social responsibility (CSR) can avert the tragedy of the commons by examining one case study in depth: Coca-Cola's bottling operations in Rajasthan, India. In spite of choosing a context favourable to the proposition, the results indicate that CSR does not avert the tragedy of the commons. To address the major environmental challenges, it is essential to develop regulatory regimes with appropriate incentives and ability to enforce sanctions.

Book part
Publication date: 16 December 2016

Davide Forcella and Jean-Michel Servet

This chapter aims to use the theory of commons to reflect on the mechanisms that supported the recent (micro)financial crisis. This approach naturally extends the analysis of the…

Abstract

Purpose

This chapter aims to use the theory of commons to reflect on the mechanisms that supported the recent (micro)financial crisis. This approach naturally extends the analysis of the growing field of green microfinance and the financialization of commons and in particular the environment.

Methodology/approach

The study provides a theoretical analysis of the recent crisis and the introduction of the environmental dimension to microfinance. This theoretical analysis is supported by extensive experience in many years of field research and qualitative and quantitative analysis of the (micro)financial crisis and green microfinance. The theoretical analysis is based on the results of previous research developed using primary and secondary data.

Findings

Using the theory of commons we interpret the recent crisis and the financialization of the environment as the tragedy of commons.

We highlight that when the private profit prevails over community benefit, both at the financial and environmental level, efforts toward financial inclusion and environmental conservation could instead lead to financial crisis and environmental damage.

Research implications

Financial inclusion and environmental economy cannot be analyzed simply in terms of economic utility; a systemic view that embraces the complexity of poverty and the human–environment system is required to assess the actual outcomes of programs dealing with financial inclusion.

Practical/social implications

Policymakers, international agencies, and implementing institutions such as financial intermediary institutions should question an oversimplistic view of financial inclusion and the economic value of environmental goods. They should instead include in their analysis and program design considerations of the complex interactions between actors, collective behavior, and emerging properties of human and environmental systems.

Originality/value

The theory of commons is employed to analyze both financial inclusion and green microfinance. We propose that (micro)finance should be understood and managed as a common good to support the development of a socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable financial system.

Details

Finance and Economy for Society: Integrating Sustainability
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78635-509-6

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 3 May 2023

Jens Alm and Alexander Paulsson

Transport infrastructure in most countries is owned and maintained either by public authorities, private organisations, or individuals. However, in Sweden, about 50 per cent of…

Abstract

Transport infrastructure in most countries is owned and maintained either by public authorities, private organisations, or individuals. However, in Sweden, about 50 per cent of the road network is owned and maintained by civic road associations. By using the analytic notion of commoning, this chapter seeks to explore how road maintenance is organised and in what ways civic participation is contributing to infrastructure maintenance. Through interviews with representatives of civic road associations in Vellinge municipality and municipal representatives, we conclude that property owners are being commoned, that is, they are obliged to be a member of the civic road association in the neighbourhood where they own property. This means that property owners are given the opportunity to collectively decide on matters of road infrastructure, including maintenance and investments. Each civic road association is also acting as an organisational collective, demanding or pressuring the municipality and its politicians to reform subsidies and the organisation of ownership of roads and responsibility for their maintenance. As a single property owner, this is difficult, but as an organisational collective, in a civic road association, they have a voice. As a citizen, local municipal election offers opportunities to push for change, but at these institutionalised moments of democracy, road infrastructure issues compete with other issues. Election campaigns rarely target road maintenance, although Vellinge seems to be an exception here. Nevertheless, as citizenship is built around the provision of universal and evenly distributed infrastructure, crumbling infrastructure in different parts of the municipality tends to raise concerns over equal access and opportunities – and also differentiated citizenships.

Details

Public Participation in Transport in Times of Change
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80455-037-3

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 27 December 2013

Cara Nine

To determine the normative philosophical legitimacy of territorial claims to the Arctic high seas.

Abstract

Purpose

To determine the normative philosophical legitimacy of territorial claims to the Arctic high seas.

Methodology/approach

In this chapter I sketch a philosophical guideline for determining the scope of territorial rights based on established theories of territorial claims.

Findings

The scope of territorial rights should be limited to a geographical domain within which a group can establish a site of justice. Because currently a site of justice is not possible in the Arctic high seas, no state can extend a territorial claim to that area.

Implications

If adopted, this theory would prohibit the establishment of claims to the Arctic high seas made by countries such as Russia, Denmark (via Greenland) and Canada.

Details

Environmental Philosophy: The Art of Life in a World of Limits
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78350-137-3

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 30 May 2022

Camille Wejnert-Depue

The overexploitation of resources has led to drastic negative impacts on biodiversity such as an overall increasing amount of infertile soil and overgrazed land. Environmentalists…

Abstract

The overexploitation of resources has led to drastic negative impacts on biodiversity such as an overall increasing amount of infertile soil and overgrazed land. Environmentalists have been noticing now more than ever that plants and trees around the world have seen their population numbers severely drop over the last century. Many species including enormous flocks of birds congregating in marshes, herds of Wildebeest, Zebra and Tomson's Gazelle, along with untamed Tigers, Elephants, Giraffes, and Rhinos, grazing the vast natural landscape of the African plains that make their natural homes are at major risk of becoming extinct. With many pressures on world ecosystems already impacting the environment, continuous growth and natural human development trajectory is one that we must find a way to reconcile with environmental sustainability. The best way to do so is by establishing sustainability through the preservation of biodiversity and the ecosystem services different aspects of biodiversity provide. Although sustainability and biodiversity are crucial to assuring a clean future for our planet, the COVID-19 Pandemic has had a negative effect on the needs for biodiversity research, protection, and policymaking. This chapter looks at two main examples of biodiversity loss (1) the Tragedy of the Commons and (2) Deforestation to provide potential policy solutions to combat impacts of the Tragedy of the Commons and Deforestation, especially while considering implications of the current COVID-19 pandemic on biodiversity supportive policies.

Details

Systemic Inequality, Sustainability and COVID-19
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80117-733-7

Keywords

Abstract

Details

Reimagining Leadership on the Commons: Shifting the Paradigm for a More Ethical, Equitable, and Just World
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83909-524-5

Abstract

Details

Proleptic Leadership on the Commons: Ushering in a New Global Order
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83867-799-2

Abstract

Details

Proleptic Leadership on the Commons: Ushering in a New Global Order
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83867-799-2

Book part
Publication date: 21 June 2011

Christopher G. Worley and Sally Breyley Parker

This chapter provides a rich and thick description of a collaborative, place-based, interorganizational process in the domain of social, ecological, and economic sustainability…

Abstract

This chapter provides a rich and thick description of a collaborative, place-based, interorganizational process in the domain of social, ecological, and economic sustainability. Governmental agencies, businesses, philanthropic organizations, NGOs, consulting firms, and private citizens tried to move from an underorganized and tacit set of ineffective relationships toward a structural collaboration in service of a “place” known as the Cuyahoga River Valley. While the process built momentum and expectations among its participants and other stakeholders, an important outcome of the collaboration did not materialize as planned. The leading actors struggled with scaling a “negotiated order” and leveraging the high levels of commitment among the participants. Despite the setback, many of the aims of the collaboration continue to be achieved, albeit at a slower pace and without a high regional priority. The chapter explores whether the trans-organization development (Cummings, 1984) perspective is a useful model for intentionally intervening in a multi-stakeholder collaboration and the roles that negotiated order (Nathan & Mitroff, 1991) and referent organizations (Trist, 1983) play.

Details

Organizing for Sustainability
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-85724-557-1

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 7 June 2019

Michiel de Lange

The current datafication of cities raises questions about what Lefebvre and many after him have called “the right to the city.” In this contribution, I investigate how the use of…

Abstract

The current datafication of cities raises questions about what Lefebvre and many after him have called “the right to the city.” In this contribution, I investigate how the use of data for civic purposes may strengthen the “right to the datafied city,” that is, the degree to which different people engage and participate in shaping urban life and culture, and experience a sense of ownership. The notion of the commons acts as the prism to see how data may serve to foster this participatory “smart citizenship” around collective issues. This contribution critically engages with recent attempts to theorize the city as a commons. Instead of seeing the city as a whole as a commons, it proposes a more fine-grained perspective of the “commons-as-interface.” The “commons-as-interface,” it is argued, productively connects urban data to the human-level political agency implied by “the right to the city” through processes of translation and collectivization. The term is applied to three short case studies, to analyze how these processes engender a “right to the datafied city.” The contribution ends by considering the connections between two seemingly opposed discourses about the role of data in the smart city – the cybernetic view versus a humanist view. It is suggested that the commons-as-interface allows for more detailed investigations of mediation processes between data, human actors, and urban issues.

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