“Think Like a Commoner” by David Bollier 6/23/25
How can we imagine and bring about a socio-economic order that is actually climate-friendly, democratic, fair, effective, and inclusive?
Join David Bollier, author and scholar with the Schumacher Center for a New Economics—for an illuminating conversation on the great promise of the commons in reinventing governance, provisioning, and everyday social practice.
In its broadest sense, the commons is about the stewardship of all that we share as human beings: land, water, agriculture, food systems, energy, digital collaboration, mutual aid, alternative currencies, and more. This ancient yet newly revitalized paradigm offers a compelling path forward
Drawing on his just-published book Think Like a Commoner, Second Edition, Bollier will describe how commoners are creating horizontally connected, open-source style networks of mutual care, collaboration, and autonomous provisioning. From 1984 to 2010, Bollier worked with American television writer/producer Norman Lear on a variety of non-television, public affairs projects. Bollier is a cofounder of Public Knowledge, a Washington policy advocacy group dedicated to the public’s stake in copyright and Internet policies. He is currently Director of the Reinventing the Commons Program at the Schumacher Center for a New Economics and works with an international network of brilliant irregulars focused on the commons.
