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Abstract:
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"In this paper, our aim is to explore the importance of cultural identities to understand
the viability of common institutions. The idea developed here starts with a dialogue
with Ostrom thesis that, for institutional analysis, although the analysis of the rules has
a central role, the same theoretical range of variables, which are exogenous to any
situation of action, is occupied by another two elements: the attributes of the community
and the biophysical and material conditions. The role of identities, central for
understand the attributes of the community, has been examined much less by historians
despite the enormous development of Cultural History in recent years. Our case study is
the so-called Neighborhood-Owned Common Lands in North West Spain. In a
economic context of agricultural industrialization, and in the political context of
Spanish democratic transition, the perception of the local communities on the meaning
of commons has changed. From a common interpreted as an essential resource for
family reproduction, managed collectively but exploited individually, many owners start
to think in a common understand as a public good, as an institution that can replace
local governments. This changes play a central role in assure sustainability of common
institutions today."
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