Toward a Productive Common

Abstract

Collective ownership of the means of production has long defined an alternative to capitalism. After two centuries, this project has shown its incapacity to facilitate emancipation for society. Might the alternative be to move beyond property altogether? While Pierre-Joseph Proudhon developed this thesis in the nineteenth century, the practice of the common allows us to flesh out such a theory today. The eradication of property can be accomplished through an articulation of different commons in which a productive common, codirected by workers and users, would work in conjunction with commons for the socialization of income and financing.