Introduction

Abstract

Management of the resources sustained as commons presents critical challenge for planners in the twenty-first century. Here anthropologists, human ecologists, archaeologists, and environmental scientists discuss strategies to control access to such resources in the context of diminishing reserves and increasing competition. The contributors revisit Hardin’s “tragedy of the commons” argument (also referred to as “drama” or “comedy” of the commons), examine strategies to mitigate risks, and devise models for sustainable communal welfare and development. They analyse archaeological, historic, and ethnographic cases of user-managed resources to demonstrate that a very basic community-level participatory governance scheme renders successful policies to manage risk and create favourable conditions for communal wellbeing.