ABSTRACT
Open-access goods and collaborative goods are thus goods to the production or maintenance of which the users contribute. As a result, the question of exclusion presents itself in a form that is almost the reverse than in the paradigmatic situation that Hardin had in mind when writing about the “tragedy of the commons”. Success in starting small-scale initial institutions enables a group of individuals to build on the social capital thus created to solve larger problems with larger and more complex institutional arrangements. Current theories of collective action do not stress the process of accretion of institutional capital. The chapter explores two approaches are complementary rather than antagonistic: although starting from different premises and relying largely on different methodologies, they both serve to strengthen the argument in favor of empowering the community of users to define for themselves the rules by which they shall be governed in the management of their resources.
