ABSTRACT
Pattern: the collective economy as a successful commons.
Context: the world’s economy is dominated by a market economy established on the basis that humans are primarily self-centred, competitive and rational, a perspective that masks the gift relationships that operate on the basis that humans are connected, cooperative, and creative.
Issue: models of economic management such as the tragedy of the commons and the prisoner’s dilemma maintain a monopoly of mixed market and planned economies and block the way to a collaborative economy.
Resolution: the guidelines for collective action proposed by Elinor Ostrom in her Nobel Prize-winning work on managing common pool resources are based on collaborative relationships that include gift relationships.
Examples: whole-of-community economic collaboration in couch surfing, the Totnes Pound and micro loans.
