Browsing by Author "Kim, Onnuri"

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Governing with the Commons: The Commons Systems' Potential as an Experimental Local Public Sphere and its Implication to Deliberative Democracy
(2013) Kim, Onnuri
"This paper discusses the potential of the commons or Common-Pool Resource (CPR) systems as the experimental local public sphere and its implication to deliberative democracy. Specific focus is placed on the contemporary commons systems conceptualized as the commons 2.0 systems. The paper argues that the commons 2.0 systems can strengthen social learning through localized deliberation and collaborative experiments as the experimental local public sphere. Deliberation and experimental collective actions in the collaborative framework of the commons 2.0s enable social learning of greater extent including double-loop and triple-loop learning through reflective and experimental collaborative engagements. Enhanced through the experimental local public sphere, social learning contributes to the evolution of local institutions and capacity critical for collaborative self-governance. From the perspective of Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS), decentralized deliberation and collaborative experiments result in local optimalization through constant evolutionary self- adaptation. For deliberative democracy, this suggests a new perspective focusing on localized deliberation sphere of the self-governing commons systems in which reflexive and experimental engagements enhance social learning at local level. In deliberative democracy, such social learning facilitated through participatory social interactions is of critical importance as it contributes to collaborative capacity and reciprocal communicative reasoning - the essential precondition of deliberative democracy. In this sense, the commons 2.0 systems can be utilized as the community level capability building system through localized deliberation and collective experiments for collaborative governance strengthening the prospect of deliberative democracy. The role of the commons 2.0 systems in enhancing social learning as the experimental local public sphere is further illustrated through the case of the Seongmi Mountain community in Seoul, Korea."
The Problem of the Governmentalized Commons: The Importance of Legitimizing and Supporting Self-Governance for the Transition from Decentralized Management to Localized Government
(2013) Kim, Onnuri
"Through the case of Zaisan-ku system in Japan, this paper discusses the problem of the governmnetalized commons illustrating why it is difficult for suchcommonssystemsto sustain and develop as long enduring Common-pool Resource systems do. In this paper, a very broad concept of the commons is employed on purpose to include non-natural resources which happen to have CPR systems as its governing regime. By analyzing the two cases, the paper argues that both systems function as the governmnetalized commons through administrative decentralization and the enlargement of governance regime size (municipal mergers). Based on the analysis, the author states that, despite the systems' appeal as a sort of commons system, the governmnetalized commons system actually hinders the establishment and development as it do not allow self governance, lack supporting systems for individual CPR systems, and can bring commercialization of the commons. Considering that 'self-governance' is the prerequisite condition and 'nested system' is one of the necessary institutional conditions of long enduring CPR systems proposed by E. Ostrom, such aspects of the governmnetalized commons system cannot function as sustainable CPR systems. The public policy implications of this governmentalized commons problem concern legitimizing and supporting self-governance of communities and the commons. To address the problem and promote CPR systems, policy makers have to consider a comprehensive decentralization through the political structure reform, the legitimization of community self-governance and the commons rights. The UK government's recent decentralization reform including the introduction of the community rights is described as a reference point."