Jürgen Habermas’ The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere has been described as outdated and incompatible with 21st century democracies. Among other things, Habermas’ initial formulation excluded the state from the public sphere. Recently, a revised model of the public sphere has emerged that positions the state and other law-making bodies at its centre. Although some theorists have embraced this revised model, others continue to exclude the state or oversimplify its role. While some research has examined how parliaments fit into this revised model, no research has been published on this in a Canadian context. This thesis attempts to fill this gap by answering the research question: Does the Canadian House of Commons constitute a form of the public sphere? To answer this question, the Canadian House of Commons is explored along three dimensions of the public sphere – structure, representation, and interaction. This system of classification conforms to the essential function and institutional criteria of classical theory and also accounts for revised models of the public sphere. Ultimately, this work argues that the Canadian House of Commons satisfies the structural and representational dimensions of the public sphere. Its interactional dimension, however, is found to be inconsistent with public sphere theory due to a lack of real deliberation and the pervasiveness of party politics.

The purpose of this study was to discover a more effective method of administering and securing property rights for land that is currently under the customary land system, in order to encourage investment and improve the livelihood of the rural communities. This study was restricted to rural land property rights through an exploratory analysis based on nine interviews with experts who have an in-depth understanding of the relationship between secure property rights and the distribution and use of resources in rural communities. The results confirmed the need for formal property rights to be instituted in rural communities. The findings showed that a hybrid method that is not only designed to try and identify a single process for all areas but also recognise the diversity in suitability and competencies of different areas would be suitable for administering and securing property rights. The method should yield stronger potential for success in nurturing communal lands towards more productive economic endeavour. The findings suggest that there are layers of overlapping concerns that need to be specifically addressed in order to attain a comprehensive solution to communal land ownership and economic development. However, to implement procedures for allocation of land, government will need to play an instrumental role in not only shaping investment attracting policy structures but also directly injecting capital towards programs that private capital tends to avoid. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / zkgibs2015 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / Unrestricted

Une e-Université est une université qui utilise les nouvelles technologies de l'information et de la communication (NTIC) pour remplir ses missions traditionnelles : la production, la préservation et la transmission du savoir. Ses activités consistent donc à collecter et analyser les données de recherche, à diffuser les écrits scientifiques et à fournir des ressources pédagogiques numériques. Or ces biens immatériels font souvent l'objet de droits de propriété littéraire et artistique, notamment le droit d'auteur et le droit sui generis des producteurs de bases de données. Ceci oblige les e-Universités soit à obtenir des autorisations nécessaires des titulaires des monopoles, soit à avoir recours aux exceptions légales. La recherche et l'enseignement font l'objet d'exceptions légales (cf. art. L. 122-5, 3°, e) du Code de la propriété intellectuelle (CPI) et dans les art. 52a et 53 de la Urheberrechtsgesetz (UrhG)). Toutefois, celles-ci s'avèrent manifestement insuffisantes pour accommoder les activités des e-Universités. Ainsi, les législateurs nationaux ont très récemment introduit de nouvelles exceptions visant plus spécifiquement l'utilisation des NTIC dans la recherche et l'enseignement (art. L. 122-5, 10° et art. L. 342-3, 5° du CPI et les futurs art. 60a-60h de la UrhG). Une réforme en ce sens a également été proposée par la Commission Européenne (art. 3 et 4 de la proposition de la Directive sur le droit d'auteur dans le marche unique numérique). Dans ce contexte, il est souhaitable de mener le débat sur l'introduction d'une norme ouverte (de type fair use) en droit européen. Malgré cette incertitude juridique qui entoure la matière, les e-Universités n'ont pas cessé de remplir leurs missions. En effet, la communauté académique a depuis un certain temps entrepris des efforts d'autorégulation (private ordering). Le concept d'Open Science, inspiré des valeurs traditionnelles de l'éthique scientifique, a donc émergé pour promouvoir le libre partage des données de recherche (Open Research Data), des écrits scientifiques (Open Access) et des ressources pédagogiques (Open Educational Resources). Le savoir est donc perçu comme un commun (commons), dont la préservation et le développement durable sont garantis par des standards acceptés par la communauté académique. Ces standards se traduisent en langage juridique grâce aux licences publiques, telles que les Creative Commons. Ces dernières années les universités, mais aussi les organismes finançant la recherche et même les législateurs nationaux se sont activement engagés dans la promotion des communs du savoir. Ceci s'exprime à travers des "mandats" Open Access et l'instauration d'un nouveau droit de publication secondaire, d'abord en droit allemand (art. 38(4) de la UrhG) et récemment aussi en droit français (art. L. 533-4, I du Code de la recherche). / An e-University is a university that uses information and communications technology (ICT) to fulfil its traditional tasks: production, preservation and dissemination of knowledge. Its activities consist of the collection and analysis of research data, the dissemination of scientific literature and the provision of digital educational resources. However, the intangible goods required for these activities are often protected by literary and artistic property rights, such as copyright and the sui generis database right. Therefore, e-Universities are obliged to seek the permission of rights-holders or to rely on statutory exceptions. Statutory exceptions for research and teaching do exist (cf. art. L. 122-5, 3°, e) of the Code de la propriété intellectuelle (CPI) and s. 52a and 53 of the Urheberrechtsgesetz (UrhG)). They are, however, clearly insufficient to allow e-Universities to fulfil their tasks. Consequently, national legislators have recently adopted new exceptions specifically addressing the use of ICT in research and teaching (art. L. 122-5, 10° and art. L. 342-3, 5° of the CPI and the future art. 60a-60h UrhG). The European Commission has also proposed to reform EU law accordingly (art. 3 and 4 of the Proposal for a Digital Single Market Directive). In this context, it is desirable to discuss the introduction of an open (fair-use-type) norm in EU law. Despite the legal uncertainty that surrounds the question, e-Universities have not ceased to fulfil their tasks. On the contrary, efforts have been undertaken by the academic community to organise access and re-use of resources by means of private ordering. The concept of Open Science, inspired by traditional values of the ethos of science, have emerged to promote access to research data (Open Research Data), scientific literature (Open Access) and educational resources (Open Educational Resources). According to this approach, knowledge is perceived as a commons, the sustainability of which is guaranteed by standards accepted by the academic community. These standards are codified in public licenses, such as Creative Commons. In recent years not only universities, but also research funding agencies and even national legislators have actively engaged in the promotion of knowledge commons. This engagement is expressed through various Open Access mandates and the introduction of a new secondary publication right, first in German law (s. 38(4) UrhG), and more recently also in French law (art. L. 533-4, I of the Code de la recherche). / Eine E-Universität ist eine Universität, die Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologie (IKT) einsetzt, um ihre traditionellen Aufgaben zu erfüllen: Die Erzeugung, die Erhaltung und die Verbreitung von Wissen. Ihre Tätigkeiten umfassen die Sammlung und die Analyse von Forschungsdaten, die Verbreitung wissenschaftlicher Literatur und die Bereitstellung digitaler Bildungsressourcen. Allerdings unterliegen die dazu erforderlichen immateriellen Güter oftmals dem Schutz des geistigen Eigentums, beispielsweise dem Urheberrecht und dem sui-generis-Recht für Datenbanken. Deswegen sind E-Universitäten auf die Erlaubnis von Rechteinhabern oder gesetzliche Schrankenregelungen angewiesen. Es existieren bereits gesetzliche Schrankenregelungen für Forschung und Lehre (z.B. art. L. 122-5, 3°, e) Code de la propriété intellectuelle (CPI) und §§ 52a, 53 Urheberrechtsgesetz (UrhG)). Allerdings sind sie unzureichend, um E-Universitäten ihre Aufgabenerfüllung zu ermöglichen. Deswegen entschieden die nationalen Gesetzgeber, neue Schrankenregelungen speziell für die Nutzung von IKT im Bereich der Forschung und Lehre einzuführen (art. L. 122-5, 10° und art. L. 342-3, 5° CPI und §§ 60a-60h UrhG). Auch die EU-Kommission schlug eine entsprechende Änderung des Unionsrechts vor (Art. 3 und 4 des Vorschlags für eine Richtlinie über das Urheberrecht im digitalen Binnenmarkt). In diesem Zusammenhang erscheint es erstrebenswert, die Einführung einer open Regelung nach dem fair-use-Prinzip in das europäische Recht zu diskutieren. Trotz der Rechtsunsicherheit in dieser Frage haben E-Universitäten niemals aufgehört, ihre Aufgaben zu erfüllen. Vielmehr hat die akademische Gemeinschaft enorme Anstrengungen unternommen, durch eigene Dispositionen den Zugang und die Nachnutzung von Ressourcen zu ermöglichen. Inspiriert durch die traditionellen Werte des Ethos der Wissenschaft, wurde das Open Science Konzept geschaffen, um den Zugang zu Forschungsdaten (Open Research Data), wissenschaftlicher Literatur (Open Access) und Bildungsressourcen (Open Educational Resources) zu fördern. Danach ist Wissen eine Allmende, seine Nachnutzbarkeit wird durch Standards, die von der akademischen Gemeinschaft akzeptiert werden, garantiert. Diese Standards sind in öffentlichen (public) Lizenzen, wie beispielsweise Creative Commons, kodifiziert. In den letzten Jahren haben sich nicht allein Universitäten, sonst auch Agenturen für Forschungsförderung und sogar nationale Gesetzgeber aktiv in der Förderung des öffentlichen Wissensschatzes engagiert. Dieses Engagement wurde deutlich im Rahmen vieler Open-Access-Mandaten und der Einführung eines neuen Zweitveröffentlichungsrecht, das zunächst Eingang in das deutsche (§ 38 Abs. 4 UrhG) und kürzlich auch in das französische Recht (art. L. 533-4, I Code de la recherche) fand.

This interdisciplinary research bridging geography and fine art (‘geo-aesthetics’) follows contemporary artwork journeys from the studio into the public domain to discover how notions of value shift as the artwork travels. It seeks transfigurative nodes and their catalysts to explore how art matters: firstly how it becomes matter in the studio, and then how it comes to matter beyond the studio door. Two case studies at key moments of revaluation, a buy-out and a buy-in, both reveal responses to uncertainty that stress different kinds of collectivity. The first case study follows artistic practice and process in four studios in a Johannesburg atelier to investigate intrinsic value and finds ‘artistic thinking’. The second case study follows the assemblage of a private art collection managed from Cape Town, initially as an art fund, to investigate extrinsic valuation and finds ‘structural thinking’. These different modalities in the production and consumption circuitry of the artworld have unexpected correlations including shared artists and three linking concepts, namely, uncertainty, mobility, and the web. These in turn inform three observations: nested capacity, derivative value, and art as a public good. Two key findings emerge: contemporary art is itself a vector of value that performs meaning as it moves; and public interest is a central characteristic from which other valuations flow. The research uses repeat interviews, site visits and visual methods, which are triangulated with artwork trajectories to surface linkages between space and imagination. It offers a performative theory of value that speaks to an expanded new materialism. Applying an ecological framework allows a final transfiguration for an artworld ecosystem that (re)values contemporary art as part of an undercommons.

Elinor Ostrom challenges the view that states and markets alone have the potential to successfully regulate policymaking processes regarding long term sustainability of natural resources, promoting self-governing institution and communities in governing commons. Forestry management is concerned with administrative, social, environmental and economic aspects on forests and forestry resources, which in particular climates require adaptive measures accordingly with local environmental conditions. In Australia the fire-prone clima- te requires the inclusion of efficient and long-term sustainable fire management practices in order to protect ecosystems, natural resources and the population. Recent events such as destructive fire seasons and global spread of diseases brought attention to efficiency of current management strategies and promote the inve- stigation of indigenous and traditional knowledge, seen with potential for long-term sustainability, ecosy- stem restoration, and climate mitigation. Aboriginal fire management practices undertaken in the Kimberley Region and the Northern Territory of Australia are investigated and evaluated accordingly with socio-eco- nomic, environmental and societal standards, to create an overall scenario where fire is understood as a common resource, manageable and equally valuable as water and land. If seen as a common and managed as such, fire can be beneficial for long term sustainability, with the potential to address biodiversity conser- vation, resource management practices, and climate change mitigation.

This article develops a critique of the tragedy of the commons theory that is frequently applied to explain fisheries decline. In its place the authors offer the tragedy of the commodity as an alternative framework that better explains resource overexploitation and environmental degradation. They use a political economic analysis to discuss the social and ecological transformations that have occurred in the Mediterranean bluefin tuna fishery, with an emphasis on the Sicilian traditional trap fishery. Examining this case, the authors argue that Marx's explanation of capitalist private property, commodity production, and the general formula for capital provide powerful theoretical guides for clarifying the social relations of production that have driven the overexploitation of fisheries in the recent past. Relying on historical and qualitative data, the case study illustrates the ways in which the social imperative of capitalist commodity production toward accumulating surplus-value directs production, reorganizes social relations, and transforms nature into an instrumental input that can more easily serve the needs of capital. The resulting ecological problems demonstrate the tragedy of the commodity.

This thesis is the result of a set of personal concerns about, on the one hand, how the debates about the modes of expression of the neoliberal regime - particularly in the so-called "urban world" (assuming that there is something outside the "urban”, which is a discussion I did not have place for)- develop and, on the other, of a feeling of inadequacy in relation to how the so-called “urban commons” are conceptualized by many of its promoters. My way of dealing with these concerns assumes that a conceptual review of both phenomena is necessary. In that sense, I propose, based on, principally, theorists Pierre Dardot and Christian Laval, that the point of departure for their understanding should be that of considering them as “social principles”. This conceptualisation brings about distinctive consequences both in how we might fight one principle back and how we may foster the spring of the other one. This point of view will present both principles as mutually exclusive, meaning that while one operates, the other cannot. This will lead me to suggest that the "principle of the common" should be taken as the alternative to the "neoliberal principle." Subsequently, and for being able to frame what the transit from one social principle to another consists of, I will draw upon basic conceptions of classical sociology and the Italian operaismo tradition and will try to demonstrate how the possibility of this transit highly depends on collective representational processes which involve the enacting of a praxis. Once the previous has been settled, I will develop upon philosopher Franco Berardi s notion of Poetry -basically, meaning creationfor afterwards hinging upon semiologist Umberto Eco’s theorizations on semiology of architecture. This way, I will try to expand on how certain expressions of makeshift urbanism, as practico-aesthetical experiences, might help bring about the mentioned social processes. Using that experimental theoretical framework -which relies on the concepts of Poetry, Insolvency and Solvency-, I will analyse the ways in which Allm nna Badet, a public sauna built in the former harbour of Gothenburg following makeshift procedures, might have elicited the societal processes needed for the mentioned paradigm shift. Basing myself in -mainly- architectural semiological analysis applied to my observations of the built environment and through semi-structured interviews to the users of the installation, I will try to discuss on how the involvement in that built environment’s spatial practices might have influenced the users’ conceptions and commitment regarding both social principles. I will conclude that makeshift urbanism presents itself as an adequate tool for bringing about transfigurations in the material urban hierarchies as well as for influencing subjects’ valuative schemes in the direction of the common and in detriment of the neoliberal. However, I will conclude as well, that the tool might not be capable for fostering wider and lasting social change by itself, prospect which, I suggest, might change if the tool is used at a denser and spread-out fashion alongside the urban tissue.

Today, housing is considered a commodity. This is a global challenge with direct local consequences such as unaffordability, limited housing choice, and segregation. To address these disparities, this thesis expresses a demand for change by proposing a housing manifesto for Stockholm. The aim is to explore alternative theories and models to propose a framework that is capable of redefining housing from a feminist and socio-ecological perspective. Our approach demands seeing housing as a human right, a commons, and a circle of care. To find specificity and materiality, the project focuses on applying the manifesto on two scenarios, Husby and Gasverket, which demonstrate problematic tendencies in the current housing system. By implementing strategies at different scales, we project alternatives in the urban form. This thesis challenges the role of urban planners and designers as collaborators and enablers of a vision of housing with and for all.

No description available.

This paper is about the dissolution and privatization of parish commons in 18:th century Sweden. The study focuses on four parishses (Hammarö, Väse, Ölme and Lungsund) all of them situated in the south of Värmland County. This is a region where ironworks were especially important for the eco-nomy of Sweden. The Ironworks required a lot of forest resources, of which there were a lot on the commons. This need resulted in a struggle for the resources between the ironworks and the peasants who needed it for their buildings, firewoods and pastures. With support of the state, the ironworks got parts of the commons for their supply of wood raw material.    However, this also resulted in an increased pressure on the remaining parts of the commons which the peasants could continue to use for their individual needs. The competition among the peasants led to troubles and mismanagement of the forests in the commons. In this situation, peasants who were well - off (’skattebönder’), began to work for division and privatization of the commons. The primary aim of this study is to analyze how and why this process of privatization took place. Which were the driving forces, and which were the role of different actors – the state, the aristocracy, the industrialists and different groups among the peasants – in this process?    Privatization of commonable lands in Sweden usually occurred in connection with the enclosure which in Sweden took place from the end of the 18:th century. However, In this study I have found that in at least two of the parishes, the division and privatization occurred about half a century before that enclosure, namely around 1742.    In this paper I also point to the striking similarities between the problems that occurred in these parishes and problems that always arise in commons in all areas. This problem has been discussed by authors like Garret Hardin and Ellinor Ostrom, among many others. Problems that has given rise to the concept ‘the tragedy of the commons’.