The Tragedy of the Commons

The Norwegian word for commons, allmenning, originates from the Old Norse word allmenningr, meaning “that which can be used by everyone”. By the start of the second millennium, the word was in use to describe a geographical area which a group of people had a right to use. This right entitled them to graze livestock, erect shepherd’s huts for summer grazing, to hunt and fish. For the average Norwegian today, the first thing the word brings to mind is the city of Bergen, where allmenning features in the names of many of the city’s open urban spaces, such as the central Torgallmenningen, places that are freely accessible to the population at large. Like the English word “commons”, in modern Norwegian, allmenning is also used in a more abstract, figurative sense to describe resources that are used freely by everyone, such as the air we breathe.

The Tragedy of the Commons is the dramatic title of this year’s summer exhibition at KUBE. Here, “tragedy” refers to situations where individuals and groups with access to a common resource, a commons, attempt to maximise their personal gains at the expense of the community as a whole. Cases of the tragedy of the commons can be found everywhere. Take, for example, a housing association with outdoor areas in joint ownership. The tragedy of the commons occurs when one resident picks all the apples from the tree in the housing association’s communal garden. The cost is borne by all the residents who are unable to take part in the apple harvest, with the advantage accruing to the one person who acted out of self-interest. Or consider public rights of access. In Norway, we have an ancient law that gives everyone the right to access and camp on unenclosed countryside. In such areas, the tragedy of the commons occurs when commercial enterprises are given concessions to exploit resources. A third example is the air you and I breathe, a commons that extends across national borders. If the extraction of natural resources in one country contributes to emissions that cross national borders, thereby reducing air quality in another country, then again we have a tragedy of the commons.

Over the past fifty years, the term has served as a focal point for a wide-ranging conversation between the biological and social sciences, and not least within the field of economic theory. Ecologist Garret Hardin (1915–2003) popularised the term in the 1960s. He doubted people’s ability to use commons to the benefit of all, proposing that property rights and state regulation, while far from ideal, were more likely to avoid impoverishment of the commons and hence more suitable as instruments for their management. Others, like the political scientist and economist Elinor Ostrom (1933–2012), have used new research data to show how some groups and societies have succeeded in managing collectively held resources. This research adds nuance to Hardin’s gloomy prediction that free access to a commons will eventually ruin it for all. The conclusion is that a tragic fate is not inevitable for a communal resource, a message that is central to the exhibition. In an essay written specially for this exhibition, the anthropologist Marius Warg Næss describes in greater detail the social and profoundly human mechanisms that underlie the tragedy of the commons. This essay will be part of a booklet that will be available at the museum.

The industrial revolution and the capitalist system have provided humanity with material goods on a scale that was hitherto inconceivable. With ever greater ingenuity, air, water, arable land, hydrocarbons, minerals, and other raw materials have been converted into food and energy, delivering development and prosperity. In this respect, Norway, a country with substantial natural resources and a deeply entrenched tradition of communal ownership, is no exception. Public access rights, resource rent tax, and state ownership of companies and assets are various aspects of a national commons, designed to benefit the population as a whole. The state grants various selected enterprises exclusive rights to exploit these publically owned resources, in the form of quotas and concessions. This has generated enormous wealth and privileges. But for several decades now, the system has faced the challenges of a growing climate and environmental crisis and demands for social justice and solidarity with indigenous peoples.

These themes have been readily embraced in art, where many of them were being explored long before they became established in public awareness. In recent decades, socially critical art, which began to flourish on the Norwegian art scene from the late 1960s onwards, has been brought up to date. Relevant artistic idioms range from the overtly activist to more subtle and poetic statements. In The Tragedy of the Commons we meet artists who ask questions about human nature and the ways different social groups relate to natural resources. The exhibition is based on the assumption that, through their work, artists have a unique potential to articulate ideas about such complex questions. The works they produce challenge not just established truths about the past, present, and future, but also the boundaries between private and communal interests, nature and culture.