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Ancient Lands Cast Long Shadows: The Case for Reconnection with English Commons for Sustainable Management and Use
(Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2003) Humphries, Andrew; Berge, Erling; Carlsson, Lars
"This paper attempts to bring into context historical and contemporary aspects of the institutional framework of English commons with particular reference to the upland grazing areas of the North and West which are of particular significance for sheep grazing. The context for a system based on ancient customary practice in the 21st century will be addressed together with proposals for modernising legislation based on statute. The contemporary response of commoners will be outlined with particular reference to Cumbria which embraces 30% of the English common land area. The principle characteristics discussed are relevant to England and Wales. Scotland has a different history and legal framework."
Commons and Landscape
(Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2003) Olwig, Kenneth; Berge, Erling; Carlsson, Lars
"This essay will argue for the necessity of combining the historical/empirical and the theoretical/institutional oriented approaches to the commons, with an approach that takes cognizance of the commons enormous symbolic importance to society as an epitome of shared abstract values and democracy. The link between these approaches to the commons lies in the conception of the commons as landscape."
Commons for Whom? On New Coastal Commons on North Norwegian Coasts
(Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2003) Sandberg, Audun; Berge, Erling; Carlsson, Lars
"There are dramatic events taking place on North-Norwegian Coasts during this period. On the surface this appears as a surprising shift in the opinion of the coastal population in crucial questions. One such fundamental question in coastal areas has been the issue of Norwegian membership in the European Union, where the opinion is tilting from opposition tied to fishing rights for wild fish towards support tied to marketing access for farmed fish. But underneath this there are other long term processes that might enable us to explain why the once crucial issue of local resource control now seems to be of less importance than it was in 1972 and even as late as 1994. This paper is an initial attempt to outline what is going on in a typical resource-dependent region when the fundamental institutional relations are changed. In doing so, it does not utilize contemporary concepts like privatisation, individualization, re-feudalisation, or other ideologically based constructs as explanatory factors. Rather it is using basic property rights as useful representations of an important analytical link between the biophysical world and the social world. By tracing the effects of different designs of property rights on both natural stocks of fish and on coastal ecosystems, and on social systems like coastal communities, firms, corporations and political parties, we might come nearer to possible explanations of seemingly surprising events. "The fundamental assumption here is that the attempts at a more 'rational' resource management for wild marine fish have had unintended consequences. Over the years this benevolent political gesture has become much like a Trojan horse for coastal communities. Hidden inside precious gift that modern resource management regimes were to the coastal population, there are three dangerous soldiers: one is the soldier of increased social rigidity that rises from increased ecological uncertainty, the second is the soldier of inefficiency and lack of innovation that results from the accumulation of inequality, and the third soldier is the danger of unsustainable use of coastal ecosystems and ecosystem services."
The Commons in Navarra: Urbasa-Andia-Limitaciones
(Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2003) Oses, Nuria; Berge, Erling; Carlsson, Lars
"As the common land in Navarra is so extended and diverse, in the following, I will put my attention in one of these common land: Urbasa and Andia, which have been till recently, state commons. I will analyse who are the actors entitled to appropriate, what are the goods the actors appropriate, how do the actors go about appropriating and what are the actors allowed to do with the good appropriated. I will also analyse the effect that the exploitation of Urbasa and Andia has had on the landscape of these territory."
Commons: Old and New -- On Environmental Goods and Services in the Theory of Commons
(Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2003) Berge, Erling; Carlsson, Lars
"The modern and largely academic and urban initiated concern with environmental protection of landscapes, species, watersheds, biodiversity, ecosystem-services etc. are framed by a language suggesting that the main concern is the protection and preservation of precarious resources of common interests for mankind. "Thus the values deserving the attention of environmental protection seem to be very different from the concerns shaping the evolution of traditional commons: the control of access to and extraction of resources seen as limited but essential for the survival of local communities. "The paper will explore the theoretical differences and similarities of the two types of interests driving the concern for preserving values. It will be suggested that a basic difference lies in the distinction between values where there is rivalry in appropriation and values where there is non-rivalry. It will further be argued that in designing new institutions for managing protected areas, an understanding of traditional commons and how the new values to be protected are different from and interact with the old values will be important to achieve sustainability of resource use within the protected areas."
Community Rights and Access to Land in Scotland
(Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2003) Sellar, David; Berge, Erling; Carlsson, Lars
"The purpose of the paper was to give a flavour of the great land debate which has been raging in Scotland for some years, and of which the most tangible outcome so far has been the Land Reform Scotland Act. This Act, passed by the Scottish Parliament in January 2003, contains provisions permitting general public access to land, and allowing for the community purchase of land. Before moving on to the land debate, the paper considered a number of preliminary points: the history of commons or 'commonties' in Scotland; whether anything approximating to an allemansrett might be said to exist in Scotland; the Trust concept; and two myths regarding ownership and access."
The Environment as a Common Good in the Time of Globalization: Its Conceptualization and Social Perception
(Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2003) Pardo, Mercedes; Echavarren, Jose M.; Aleman, Eliana; Berge, Erling; Carlsson, Lars
"It is usual to consider the environment as a common good, but we are far from having a clear definition of either of them: the environment and the common. Both vary according the scope of the analysis (world, national, regional, provincial, local), the different societies, and the diverse elements included, and so vary the social perception and action on the environment. On the other hand, new and increasing demands from the environment as a common good, as it is the case of preserving biodiversity or landscape among others) might clash with traditional commons. Societies face now a challenge to compatibilize traditional commons and the new common: the environment. In order to study the idea of the environment as the new common is relevant to pay attention to legal conceptions and issues related with property rights. A conceptual and historical clarification of the sense and meaning of common is required. In this paper the conceptual problematic of the term common for the case of the environment is analyzed, and the change in its social perception within the process of industrialization and globalization. A case study of Navarre (Spain) show how people conceive Nature in terms of common good."
Forest Finns vs. Swedish Commons
(Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2003) Wedin, Maud; Berge, Erling; Carlsson, Lars
"The Savolax expansion 1400-1500; Svidden cultivation as a general; Svidden cultivation made by forest Finns; spruce forest, slash- and burn, forest rye; Svidden 'culture': Access to land more important than ownership, using large areas; Extended expansion to Scandinavia, first Sweden, later Norway and even the colony New Sweden. Also migration east and southwards (religion). Reasons for migration (push-): Civil war, war against Russia, deterioration of climate, overpopulation, taxation (noble people who were granted land as reward for instance Ruovesi and Rautalampi) (and pull) the search for new svidden areas. Two choices: change the way to support themselves or migrate. The state asked for new settlements, gave about six years of freedom from taxation."
The Institutional Geography of Early Modern Swedish Commons: The Case of Grimstens Hundred in Central Sweden
(Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2003) Jansson, Ulf; Berge, Erling; Carlsson, Lars
"In the debate on commons over the last 30 years the starting point has often been Hardin's seminal paper The Tragedy of the commons from 1968. This view has been challenged over the years, mainly within the discussion that can be labeled common-pool resources (CPR). This discussion has however focused very little on the geography of the commons. A growing and interesting discussion on institutional geography partly connected to actor-network theory engage both the geography and the social organisations. This paper is an attempt to bring the historical geography of the commons in Sweden into this discussion."
Managing Commons Across Levels of Organization
(Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2003) Carlsson, Lars; Berge, Erling
"Co-management has proven effective for sustainable management of natural resources. However, contemporary research indicates that in many cases local communities of resource users have develop sophisticated systems of collaboration, not only with the State but also with numerous other actors. These experiences also show that the State is no unity meaning that a community can establish different types of relations with different units of 'the State.' In this article the concept co-management network is launched as a way to label, and thereby to get a better understanding of these webs of collaborative agreements. It is conjectured that co-management networks normally are developed over significant periods of time, that they in essence nurture cross-scale institutional linkages, and that these characteristics enhance capacity building for better natural resources management. Finally, it is suggested that more research, which would explicitly employ the idea of co-management networks should be conducted."
New Challenges for Old Commons: The Implications of Rural Change for Crofting Common Grazings
(Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2003) Brown, Katrina Myrvang; Berge, Erling; Carlsson, Lars
"This paper concerns the way in which 'old' common property institutions cope with and respond to 'new' challenges posed by post-productivist rural change. Common property regimes were once widespread throughout much of the Western European landscape but the prevailing trend over the last few centuries has been towards their demise. The interrelated pressures of population growth, commercialisation, industrialisation, successive rounds of enclosure legislation, and an academic and cultural privileging of individual forms of property, have all conspired to effect the extinguishment and erosion of communal resource rights (North & Thomas, 1973; Dahlman, 1980; De Moor et al. 2002). Nevertheless, a number of these 'old commons' have survived to the present day in countries such as Norway, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, Scotland, England, Wales, and Ireland."
Norwegian Commons: History, Status and Challenges
(Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2003) Sevatdal, Hans; Grimstad, Sidsel; Berge, Erling; Carlsson, Lars
"This paper will look at the Norwegian Commons with the following focus: How these ancient institutions have evolved during the last 200 years; The interests of the different stakeholders and the ensuing conflicts up to the present; How the institutions managing the commons have adapted to the changes in the Norwegian society from agrarian towards an industrialised and more urbanised country. By investigating the history and the privatisation and formalisation processes the commons have undergone, we are able to see how the institution has been able to adapt to changing economic and political environments. It illustrates the tension that has been and still is between the central power and the local community concerning the state commons. These tensions are however only one aspect of conflicts relating to the commons; at times there were equally high tensions between different local communities and also between various stakeholders within local communities. But maybe the most important is that it shows that the institution of the commons has persisted for nearly a thousand years, and that it may exist side by side with 'ordinary' private and public ownership of land. It can also adapt and modernise into becoming an important voice of the local community in local and central politics. It has also been a goal of this research to provide documentation of one example (of many) of the thriving existence of common property ownership in modern western countries, showing that this ownership form is not an 'archaic' or outdated form that only exists in poorer developing countries. Furthermore the report shows that the commons have not been a stagnant form of ownership, but has changed and still changes according to the tendencies particularly in the rural/agricultural sector. It discusses some of the modern time challenges for the commons in society."
The Right of Public Access in Sweden: A History of Modernization and a Landscape Perspective
(Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2003) Sandell, Klas; Berge, Erling; Carlsson, Lars
"In summary, the right of public access in Sweden is in common law and can be seen as the 'free space' between various restrictions, mainly: (i) economic interests; (ii) people's privacy; (iii) preservation; and (iv) the utilisation of the landscape. For example, camping for not more than 24 hours is generally allowed, traversing any ground, lake or river, swimming, lighting a fire etc. are permitted wherever the restrictions mentioned above are not violated."

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