Journal ArticleDOI
Beating the bounds: how does ‘open source’ become a seed commons?
TLDR
The Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI) as discussed by the authors is a project that aims to defend the commons in the context of a growing transnational commoning movement, and is based on the metaphor of "beating the bounds".Abstract:
In response to ongoing plant genetic enclosures, the Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI) is creating a ‘protected commons’ for seed. It is a project, I argue, that reflects characteristics of a growing transnational commoning movement. From the Zapatistas to seed wars, such movements draw attention to commons not simply as a resource, but as a dynamic and evolving social activity: commoning. In the US, OSSI includes 38 plant breeders, 48 seed companies and 377 crop varieties. Yet challenges remain for OSSI to gain wider legitimacy for ‘freed seed’, to build trust in a moral pledge, and to establish fair guidelines for which people and which seed can participate in making the commons. Using the metaphor of ‘beating the bounds’ – a feudal practice of contesting enclosures – I ask how OSSI defends the commons in intersecting arenas. The first way is legal, as OSSI negotiates a move from contract law toward moral economy law. Next is epistemic, as an informal breeder network revitalizes farmer knowledge, while...read more
Citations
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Encountering development: the making and unmaking of the Third World
First the seed; the political economy of plant biotechnology
TL;DR: A caracteristica fundamental dessa nova e "man-made" evolucao, o que certamente encerra inumeras questoes, tanto de âmbito tecnico e economico como, e principalmente, de cunho social, is a nova biotecnologia.
Journal ArticleDOI
Whigs and Hunters: The Origin of the Black Act
TL;DR: The origin of the Black Act was discussed in this article, with a focus on the Whigs and Hunters: The Origin of Black Act (1916) and the origins of the black act.
Journal ArticleDOI
Concentration and Power in the Food System: Who Controls What We Eat?
Journal ArticleDOI
‘Keeping seeds in our hands’: the rise of seed activism
Karine Peschard,Shalini Randeria +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss seed commons, peasant seeds, and seed sovereignty as powerful expressions of what may be termed as seed activism, and present the opening paper of the JPS Special Forum on Seed A...
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
The Tragedy of the Commons
TL;DR: The population problem has no technical solution; it requires a fundamental extension in morality.
Book
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TL;DR: In this paper, an institutional approach to the study of self-organization and self-governance in CPR situations is presented, along with a framework for analysis of selforganizing and selfgoverning CPRs.
Journal ArticleDOI
Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action
Book
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TL;DR: In the third volume of "Das Kapital" as discussed by the authors, Marx argues that any market economy is inevitably doomed to endure a series of worsening, explosive crises leading finally to complete collapse.
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