Rethinking Common Property, Community and Collective Action: Nature and Peasant Politics in India

Abstract

"In this paper I will argue that a crucial asymmetry exists between the community and the outside world. As a result, despite exhibiting precisely the features highlighted by Ostrom as constituting institutional capacity leading to successful and enduring common property regimes, a tragedy of the commons may occur because of state and market forces. Endogenous features of community may not be sufficient to overcome the forces of the state and the market, and external allies may be necessary to provide information regarding state strategies and to extend pre-existing notions of community. I will make my critique and present an alternative framework to conceptualize links between common property, community and collective action based on the experience of peasant communities in India and their relations with social movements around the question of 'the environment'."