Introduction Part I: Overview of Leading on the Commons¹

The last few decades of growing inequality in the world, the loud call of peoples everywhere to have more say in the political machinations of their countries, and the global instability of the financial and economic systems caused by neoliberal capitalism, crowned by recent revelations that many key social and political systems have become dysfunctional, have brought challenges to capitalism and concern for the seeming decline of democracy. Many scholars and activists have posited that the global order is undergoing the process of a radical transformation to a commons-centric society. Social theorist Jeremy Rifkin (2014), for one, argued that technology, especially the 3D printer, the Internet, communications, and energy systems have made such a transformation inevitable, due to production approaching zero-marginal cost. Commons scholars and activists Massimo DeAngelis (2017), Bollier and Helfrich (2019), and Bauwens, Kostakis, and Pazaitis (2019) all posited a transformative process in which commons, as open adaptive systems, form federations and expand to dominate the socio-economic order. Commons, as we shall point out, derive from a distinctive ontology and uphold values and ways of operating that are in sharp contrast to capitalism and are intended to support a more ethical, equitable, and just world.