Tragedy or Transcendence: Reflections on 'The Tragedy of the Commons'
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2012) | Viewed by 83677
Special Issue Editor
Interests: Cold War, Technology and Culture, Global Environmentalism
Special Issue Information
For more than four decades, the paradigm established by Garrett Hardin’s 1968 essay “The Tragedy of the Commons” has influenced how we think about a wide range of social and ecological challenges, including human population growth, the destruction of wilderness and consequent loss of biodiversity, and the changing state of the earth’s oceans, atmosphere, and climate. Hardin’s metaphor of the fragile commons has even influenced our thought about phenomena that were still nascent in 1968, such as the evolution of the “digital commons” or Internet. As the half century mark for “The Tragedy of the Commons” approaches, these essays will consider whether Hardin’s metaphor remains useful for understanding our current social and ecological challenges, or whether these problems, and their possible solutions, now transcend the parameters set by this seminal essay.
Dr. Richard Samuel Deese
Guest Editor