Enclosure without and within the ‘information commons’

The paper starts by pointing to the lack of any theoretical analysis for the concepts of ‘the commons’ and ‘information’ in the general reference to the ‘enclosure of the information commons’. The author suggests, instead, the concept of ‘enclosure’ as a key to understanding of ‘the information commons’, although it is underdeveloped and often equated with privatization or commodification. This paper attempts to establish a systematic theory of enclosure that enables examination of possible contradictions that may lie deep within the ‘information commons’. The information commons is an idea whose time has come. In part this is a result of pressures that face the commons. Issues related to intellectual property law in particular are leading to what many are now calling the enclosure of the information commons—a process that separates people from ideas. This process is analogous to the fencing off of the English commons, an act that separated people from the material resources they needed for their survival. (Info-commons.org, 2002) Within a repressive society, even progressive movements threaten to turn into their [declared] opposite to the degree to which they accept the rules of the game. (Herbert Marcuse, Citation1965) Unless we demonstrate greater caution with analytical models that are products, as they all are, of particular histories, we are in danger not only of solving but also of producing tragedies and dilemmas in the commons and elsewhere. (Pauline E. Peters, Citation1987)