ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the role that community self-management can play in solving collective problems. It explores some of the analytical categories developed in the theory of commons to outline the relation between institutional resources and cooperation. The chapter addresses the societal surplus produced by cooperation, leading to a reduction of social poverty. It also discusses some institutional solutions in support of cooperation: multi-stakeholder participatory structures and deliberative nexus. The chapter explains the outcomes of institutional solutions and also addresses surplus socialisation. The idea of social regeneration through the creation of specific institutions that reinforce and enable cooperation is supported by the theory of commons, which proves that cooperation can engender benefits for individuals and for the collectivity more broadly. An understanding of social poverty and social regeneration opportunities is supported by social capital theory. Cooperation produces a variety of effects that work towards social regeneration.
