LIST OF PANELS

This panel seeks to explore the relationship between the different forms of public policy collaborations and the governance of the commons through the lens of commoning.

Collaboration has become a key policy for addressing wicked problems and complexity (e.g. Bianchi, 2021; Hofstad et al., 2021). It has also been recognized as an essential means for achieving public values, democratizing the civil service, and diversifying it (e.g., Wagenaar & Wenninger, 2020; Ansell et al., 2017; Sher-Hadar et al., 2021).

However, despite the many types of collaborations developed and the vast research on them (e.g., cross-sector partnerships, private-public partnerships, co-creation, collaborative governance: Almog-Bar and Zichlinsky, 2010; Sher-Hadar et al., 2021; Ansell & Torfing, 2021; Torfing et al., 2021), it seems that a different approach should be taken amidst the accelerating polycrises.

We believe that integrating the vast knowledge gathered from research on collaborations with contemporary literature on commoning may offer valuable insights for developing powerful new policy tools or enhance policy methods (such as DPA, Hajer and Wagenaar, 2003) that can help mitigate these worrying trends by regenerating the governance of the commons (Bollier, 2024).

"Commoning" originated from the word "commons" and refers to the creation of peer-governed, context-specific systems for free, fair, and sustainable lives (Bollier & Helfrich, 2019, pp. 97-98). It entails the capacity of people to self-organize to meet their needs and solve problems independently of the state or market (Ibid, 2019, p.15). The commoning worldview is built on shared responsibility, deep communion with nature, and mutual care and reciprocity. Commoning can effectively enhance the deliberative and practice capacities of policy systems – key tools in DPA 2.0 (Wagenaar, 2022).

Recent insights from commoning and commons-based approaches to public policy (Bollier, 2024) point to two core issues that may help us understand this shortcoming:

(1)  Commoning views collaboration as much more than an instrumental tool for solving collective problems. It is a vital practice in and of itself for cultivating fertile ground for strengthening democracy and fostering trust in institutions and across diverse groups.

(2)  Commoning treats the commons (both physical and cultural) not as private goods or resources to be exploited instrumentally and effectively. They are recognized as integrative socio-ecological systems that sustain and regenerate life.

This panel wishes to provide a space for researchers and practitioners to critically reflect on how commoning could transform the way we think about governance, collaborations, and the commons, opening new possibilities for public policy. We also wish to discuss other policy tools within this value framework that may fit better the public sector.

We invite both theoretical and empirical contributions that address four general questions:

1.     Can commoning become a tool for the public sector? And if so, how?

2.     How do policy tools rooted in the same value framework, such as DPA, help regenerate the commons?

3.     How do other public policy collaborations enhance similar results, as commoning, for the commons and thus for the economy, politics, and society?

4.     Are there other effective policy tools that promote the same goals and values as commoning in the face of complexity?

This panel wishes to develop a commoning practice among researchers and practitioners to enhance commoning and critically reflect on how collaborations could transform the way we think about governance, collaborations, and the commons, opening new possibilities for public policy.