%0 Journal Article
%T Thinking the Commons through Ostrom and Butler: Boundedness and Vulnerability
%A Gustavo Garc¨ªa-L¨®pez
%A Irina Velicu
%J Theory, Culture & Society
%@ 1460-3616
%D 2018
%R 10.1177/0263276418757315
%X In this paper we propose an ¡®undisciplinary¡¯ meeting between Elinor Ostrom and Judith Butler, with the intent to broaden the theory of the commons by discussing it as a relational politics. We use Butler¡¯s theory of power to problematize existing visions of commons, shifting from Ostrom¡¯s ¡®bounded rationality¡¯ to Butler¡¯s concepts of ¡®bounded selves¡¯ and mutual vulnerability. To be bounded ¨C as opposed to autonomous being ¨C implies being an (ambiguous) effect of socio-power relations and norms that are often beyond control. Thus, to be a collective of bounded selves implies being mutually vulnerable in power relations which are enabling, albeit injurious. A politics of commoning is not a mere technical management of resources (in space) but a struggle to perform common livable relations (in time). We argue that the multiple exposures which produce us are also the conditions of possibility for more just and equalitarian ¡®re-commoning¡¯ of democracies around the world
%K boundedness
%K commons
%K commoning
%K power
%K subjectivities
%K vulnerability
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0263276418757315