[Nettime-bold] Tragedy of the commons (was:Re: <nettime> Don't Fuck with Democracy.)

[Mikael Pawlo <mikael@pawlo.com>]

Den 14 Jan 2002 skrev Lachlan Brown:
> I just wondered where the phrase 'tragedy of the commons' 
>came from
> and what this phrase was doing in your conference call. 
(---)

The Tragedy of the commons was the title of an article written by Garrett Hardin, published in Science, 162(1968).

This passage in the article sums Hardin's theory up pretty well:

"The tragedy of the commons develops in this
way. Picture a pasture open to all. It is to be
expected that each herdsman will try to keep as
many cattle as possible on the commons. Such
an arrangement may work reasonably
satisfactorily for centuries because tribal wars,
poaching, and disease keep the numbers of both
man and beast well below the carrying capacity
of the land. Finally, however, comes the day of
reckoning, that is, the day when the long-desired
goal of social stability becomes a reality. At this
point, the inherent logic of the commons
remorselessly generates tragedy."

"As a rational being, each herdsman seeks to maximize his gain. Explicitly or implicitly, more or less consciously, he asks, "What is the utility to me of adding one more animal to my herd?" This utility has one negative and one positive component. 

1. The positive component is a function of the increment of one animal. Since the herdsman receives all the proceeds from the sale of the additional animal, the positive utility is nearly + 1. 

2. The negative component is a function of the additional overgrazing created by one more animal. Since, however, the effects of overgrazing are shared by all the herdsmen, the negative utility for any particular decision­making herdsman is only a fraction of - 1. 

Adding together the component partial utilities, the rational herdsman concludes that the only sensible course for him to pursue is to add another animal to his herd. And another.... But this is the conclusion reached by each and every rational herdsman sharing a commons. Therein is the tragedy. Each man is locked into a system that compels him to increase his herd without limit -- in a world that is limited. Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons. Freedom in a commons brings ruin to all."

The article is avalaible all over the net. One place is here:
http://dieoff.org/page95.htm 

Regards

Mikael Pawlo
_________________________________________________________________________

                                          mailto:mikael@pawlo.com  
                                          http://www.pawlo.com/

_______________________________________________
Nettime-bold mailing list
Nettime-bold@nettime.org
http://amsterdam.nettime.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nettime-bold