How can and to what effect can discussion of space be inserted into a Commons debate?
Geographer Mark Giordano (2003, 65) has remarked that, ‘at a most fundamental level, the problem of the commons revolves around humans, their environment and the spatial relations between the two’.
Geographers have been late arrivals in terms of participating in the commons literature but their contribution has been distinctive. This essay asks you to consider how scale and space (the ‘size’ of the commons’ and its areal extent and shape) adds particularly but not exclusively to the work of Hardin and Ostrom. you will need to familiarise yourself with Hardin, Ostrom, and Giordano’s work.