ABSTRACT
The commons have been described as a drama, even a 'tragedy'. Their fate, their future, has never seemed more parlous, with climate change, population growth, and competition for scarce resources seemingly threatening greatest common property. This chapter shows that the contemporary commons as both being lost in old shapes and recovered in new forms, as a contested and dynamic domain of collective existence, with the balance between the rapacious demands of political economy and the promise of social innovation. It explores the shifts that are inherent in any 'being in common', seeing old institutions such as law and citizenship compromised as sites of universal inclusion as well as micro-worlds of social being born out of the ruins of neoliberal abandonment. The chapter shows that how people imagine the commons is equally important, for the keyword comes with many mystifications, meanings, and compromises, all of which have a bearing on what should be done, and by whom, and in whose name.
