[Commlist] CfC Digital Commons, Social Order and Education. Rebuilding communities and democracy in the digital age

*Call for Chapters extended deadline (April 30): Digital Commons, Social 
Order and Education.  Rebuilding communities and democracy in the 
digital age.*

Editors:
• Matteo Stocchetti, Arcada University of Applied Science, Finland &
Helsinki University
• Pekka Buttler, Arcada University of Applied Science, Finland & Hanken
School of Economics, Finland

SUMMARY
We are inviting book chapter proposals for a forthcoming edited volume
on the significance, future potential and current & future hazards of
the digital commons in relation to individuals, communities, social
order and democracy.

Our interpretation of ‘digital commons’ is non-exclusive, and is
intended to include both well-known categories such as Creative Commons,
Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS), Open Data as well as any other
approaches focused on the open sharing or non-appropriation of digital
material.

We are especially interested in contributions that discuss the role or
potential (for good or for evil) of the digital commons for individuals,
in connection to communities, in relation to democracy or with regards
to questions of the political economy.

The edited volume aims to invigorate discussion around the current and
potential roles of the digital commons and hopes to collect both
research that is anchored in practice as well as conceptual, novel and
radical ideas and approaches.

Hence, we invite proposals from scholars in all fields who wish to
contribute to furthering the discussion. We especially encourage
proposals that approach the digital commons from a new direction or
using novel approaches and look forward to contributions from
interdisciplinary and academic–practitioner teams. Case studies that
elucidate affordances of the digital commons or illustrate that the
digital commons can have wider/societal ramifications are also welcome.

We are currently in discussions to have the edited volume published by a
reputable publisher in such a way that the entire result is available
open access. However, as this is contingent on the quality of
contributions, we cannot yet promise such a result.

BACKGROUND

The increasing individualisation and commercialisation of all things
digital does not mean that the public domain would have become
irrelevant, on the contrary – now more than ever we need to reinvent the
public domain (Murdock, 2005). In short, we need to build a practical,
actionable understanding of the digital commons.

Digitalization is significantly changing our everyday lives, but in no
other field is its potential for fundamental upheaval greater than in
the commons. The digital commons is fundamentally different to the
commons’ of old, in that their potential utility is multiplied, while
all those characteristics of common access and use of physical property
(whether grazing land, communal kitchens or library books) that underlie
the ‘tragedy of the commons’  (Hardin, 1968) are mitigated to the point
of practical irrelevance.

The digital commons is not only interesting in itself, but also because
it and the forms it will take are likely to exert a significant
influence on almost every facet of humanity in the digital age. Hence,
the potential areas of applicability of considerations regarding the
digital commons are myriad.

The digital commons (as a whole) and its constituent elements and
practices have not avoided academic interest. On the contrary, we are
aware of the debate that, for almost three decades now, has provided
many and diverse arguments concerning the technological, economic,
educational, social and political aspects and affordances of the digital
commons (Levy, 1984; Moglen, 1999; Kollock, 1999; Raymond, 1999; Lessig
L. , 2000; Wayner, 2000; Himanen, 2001; Bollier, 2002; Rajani et al.,
2003; Greco & Floridi, 2004; Weber, 2004; Lerner & Tirole, 2002&2005;
Vainio & Vadén, 2007; Gläser, 2007; Söderberg, 2008; Chopra & Dexter,
2008; Fuster Morell, 2010; Powell, 2016; Husted & Plesner, 2017; Rikap &
Lundvall, 2020; Böhm, Schubert, Blind, & et al. 2021; Fuchs 2020 & 2021)

Simultaneously, we think so much has changed in terms of both the
maturity of the technological underpinnings of the digital commons, the
increasing concerns regarding the concentration of power in closed
platforms (e.g. Zuboff, 2019; Lehdonvirta, 2022), the drastically
improved abilities of global villagers to partake in the digital
commons, the increasing role of the digital in fields such as education
(e.g. Stocchetti, 2020) as well as the increasingly antagonistic
political macroenvironment, that a broad-spectrum revisiting of the
digital commons seems not only fruitful, but very timely.

POTENTIAL TOPICS

The (non-exhaustive) list below contains some of the questions that the
editors consider fruitful avenues. If your topic is not on the list,
don’t let that stop you from proposing it (or sending an inquiry).
• History: e.g. what are the salient features of the history of the
digital commons/FLOSS/OD/OA movement, the ideals and the economics
behind it?
• Ideology: e.g. Is there an implicit or ‘applied’ ideology associated
with the theory and practices of the digital commons? If yes, what are
its features? If not, what is the nature of the ideational/normative
structures responsible for the organization of distribution of power in
the digital commons-related communities?
• Economics: e.g. what are the main features of the economics of the
digital commons? To what extent does digital commons economics challenge
mainstream economics? What are, if any, the opportunities and the
limitations of this challenge?
• Legal: e.g. What is the current relationship between mainstream legal
systems and the digital commons? What kinds of pressures would an
expansion of the digital commons exert on the Legal Status Quo? What
kind of legislation could support or strengthen the digital commons?
• Political Economy: e.g. What implications would an expansion of the
digital commons have for the political economy – on the local, national
or international level. How does/could the digital commons influence the
field of international political economy?
• Politics and social order: e.g. Is the digital commons commensurate
with the capitalist social order, or does the digital commons challenge
capitalist social order and how does it do that? Does the digital
commons constitute an opportunity for an alternative social order?
• Internal sustainability: e.g. Is the digital commons and the
socio-political order associated with it sustainable? What are the
challenges associated to their sustainability? What is the role of
education to address potential sustainability challenges?
• External sustainability: e.g. What are the potential contributions of
the digital commons to furthering economic, environmental and social
sustainability? Can the digital commons contribute to sustainability
transitions?
• Community (re)building: e.g. To what extent does digital commons
-related organizing (e.g. the FLOSS community) serve as a model or offer
guidelines for the rebuilding of the community in the ‘liquid’
conditions (Bauman, 2001) of the neoliberal age?
• Privacy & Security: e.g. Do privacy and security concerns pose
limitations to the digital commons? How can the digital commons
contribute to alleviating current concerns regarding privacy and
security of the internet economy?
• Democracy: e.g. How can the digital commons contribute to Democracy?
Could the digital commons help address the epistemic dimension
(Dahlgren, 2018) of the crises of democracy, and how?
• Pedagogy & Education: e.g. Is there an implicit or even explicit
pedagogy in digital commons communities (e.g. FLOSS development)? If
yes, what are the distinctive features (assumptions, ideals,
implications, etc.) of this pedagogy? If not, what is needed to
extrapolate a pedagogy from the experience of learning and social
experience of FLOSS development and projects?
• Dissemination: e.g. What (if anything) can the digital commons learn
from the experiences made in Open Access publishing? Has Open Access
publishing developed any modes of operation that could find utility
outside of the field of scholarly dissemination?

SUBMISSION PROCEDURE:

Authors are requested to submit their extended abstracts for
consideration to the editors per e-mail by the 30.4.2023. Abstracts
should not exceed 2 pages and should contain:
- Author(s) (name(s) and affiliation(s))
- Author-selected keywords
- An abstract of the intended contribution, focusing on
--- a description of which aspect (if any) of the digital commons the
contribution is concerned with.
--- a description of the approach/methods/theories the authors are
intending to employ.
--- a brief indication (if possible) of the key conclusions/contributions
the contribution would make.
--- a list of key references.

Authors/teams are expected to understand that by submitting a suggested
contribution they are also committing to
- participating in reviewing other chapters in accordance with the
collection’s schedule
- conducting revisions in a timely fashion

Authors/teams are encouraged to proactively contact the editors with any
inquiries, requests and significant updates.

IMPORTANT DATES:

• New deadline for abstracts: 30.4
• Communication of acceptances (acceptance of abstract does not
guarantee acceptance of paper): (20.5)
• First draft of full paper: 31.7,
• Reviewers comments by: 30.9
• Second draft: beginning of November

INQUIRIES:

PhD, Principal Lecturer Matteo Stocchetti
(matteo.stocchetti /at/ arcada.fi) <mailto:(matteo.stocchetti /at/ arcada.fi)>

D.Sc. (Econ), Researcher Pekka Buttler
(pekka.buttler /at/ arcada.fi) <mailto:(pekka.buttler /at/ arcada.fi)>

References

Bauman, Z. (2001). Community: Seeking Safety in an Insecure World.
London: Polity.

Bollier, D. (2002). Silent theft: The private plunder of our common
wealth. Routledge.

Böhm, M., Schubert, T., Blind, K., & et al for the European Commission,
D.-G. f. (2021). The impact of open source software and hardware on
technological independence, competitiveness and innovation in the EU
economy. Bruxelles: Publications Office of the European Union.

Chopra, S., & Dexter, S. D. (2008). Introduction. In S. Chopra, & S. D.
Dexter, Decoding Liberation: The Promise of Free and Open Source
Software (pp. xiii-xviii). New York: Routledge.

Dahlgren, P. (2018). Media, knowledge and trust: The deepening epistemic
crisis of democracy. Javnost-The Public, 25(1-2), 20-27.

Fuchs, C. (2020). The ethics of the digital commons. Journal of Media
Ethics, 35(2), 112-126.

Fuchs, C. (2021). The digital commons and the Digital Public Sphere: How
to Advance Digital Democracy Today. Westminster Papers in Communication
and Culture, 16(1).

Fuster Morell, M. (2010). Governance of online creation communities:
Provision of infrastructure for the building of digital commons
(Doctoral dissertation).

Gläser, J. (2007). The Social Order of Open Source Software Production.
In K. St. Amant, & B. Still, Handbook of Research on Open Source
Software. Technological, Economic and Social Perspective. (pp. 168-182).
Hershey: Information Science Reference.

Greco, G. M., & Floridi, L. (2004). The tragedy of the digital commons.
Ethics and Information Technology, 6(2), 73-81.

Hardin, G. (1968). The tragedy of the commons. Science, 1243-1248.

Himanen, P. (2001). The Hacker Ethic. New York: Random House.

Husted, E., & Plesner, U. (2017). Spaces of open-source politics:
Physical and digital conditions for political organization.
Organization, vol.24(5), 648-670.

Kollock, P. (1999). The economies of online cooperation. Gifts and
public goods in cyberspace. In M. A. Smith, & P. Kollock, Communities in
Cyberspace (pp. 219-238). London: Routledge.

Lehdonvirta, V. (2022). Cloud Empires: How Digital Platforms Are
Overtaking the State and How We Can Regain Control. MIT Press.

Lerner, J., & Tirole, J. (2002). Some simple economics of open source.
The journal of industrial economics, 50(2), 197-234.

Lerner, J., & Tirole, J. (2005). The economics of technology sharing:
Open source and beyond. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 19(2), 99-120.

Lessig, L. (1999). Open Code and Open Societies: Values of Internet
Governance. Chicago-Kent Law Review 74, 1405.

Lessig, L. (2000). Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace. New York: Basic Books.

Levy, S. (1984). Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution. Garden
City, N.Y.: Anchor Press/Doubleday.

Moglen, E. (1999). Anarchism Triumphant: Free Software and the Death of
Copyright. First Monday, 4(8).

Murdock, G. (2005). Building the digital commons. In G. F. Lowe,
Cultural Dilemmas in Public Service Broadcasting. Göteborg: Nordicom.

Powell, A. (2016). Hacking in the public interest: authority,
legitimacy, means, and ends. New Media & Society 18(4), 600–616.

Rajani, N., Rekola, J., & Mielonen, T. (2003). Free as in education:
significance of the free/libre and open source software for developing
countries. Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, Department for
Development Policy.

Raymond, E. S. (1999). The Cathedral and the Bazaar: Musings on Linux
and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary. Sebastopol, Calif.:
O’Reilly & Associates.

Rikap, C., & Lundvall, B.-Å. (2020). Big Tech, knowledge predation and
the implications for development. Innovation and Development, 12(3):389-416.

Stocchetti, M. (2020). The Digital Age and Its Discontents: Critical
Reflections in Education (p. 274). Helsinki University Press.

Söderberg, J. (2008). Hacking capitalism: The free and open source
software movement. New York: Routledge.

Vainio, N., & Vadén, T. (2007). Free Software Philosophy and Open
Source. In K. St. Amant, & B. Still, Handbook of Research on Open Source
Software. Technological, Economic, and Social Perspectives (pp. 1-11).
Hershey: Information Science Reference.

Wayner, P. (2000). Free for all: How Linux and the free software
movement undercut the high-tech titans. New York: Harper Business.

Weber, S. (2004). The Success of Open Source. Cambridge: Harvard
University Press.

Zuboff, S. (2019). The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a
Human Future at the New Frontier of Power. London: Profile Books.



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