It could be said that we are moving into a new age of ownership. The long and destructive reach of austerity, the eroding faith in market based governance and the realisation that privatisation sucks energy and resources away from the public sphere have combined to bring questions of ownership back into focus.
A new think tank, Common Wealth, has only recently launched but is already beginning to set a new agenda for the future of ownership. In a long-read piece published to accompany the launch of the new venture, Common Wealth founder Mathew Lawrence sets out why ownership matters, and envisions its part in an ambitious reimagined future.
Within this broader agenda, Lawrence outlines six areas in which Common Wealth will seek to redefine ownership. One particularly vital set of proposals revolves around the building of a new ‘digital commons’. In short, as I understand it, the aim of the digital commons is to radically realign the ownership of the technological systems and platforms that are shaping our lives. The agenda is yet to be fully outlined, but it aims to move the digital realm from private to public ownership. In particular, it seeks to reclaim the ownership of the data that is produced as a by-product of our use of these media. It would then place these data into a new type of commons. This would guide power and profit towards more collective and progressive outcomes. At the same time, the creation of the digital commons would help to alleviate the negative, harmful and damaging uses of these technologies and curb attempts to target and manipulate us using these systems.
