EcoGathering: Enclosure and Primitive Enclosure

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Conversation

Enclosure is seen by many as the beginning of capitalism as a dominant economic system. It is an ongoing process of claiming once commonly managed resources (both physical and abstract) as private property that can only be accessed through a financial transaction, while facilitating the forgetting of the skills and culture needed to cooperatively manage those resources. The history of enclosure is often overlooked, yet it is a vital piece of the puzzle about how we got to this point of disconnection on the brink of civilizational collapse. In this EcoGathering, we will discuss the forgotten history of enclosure, how it is continuing to claim ever more abstract frontiers, what will happen when it finally runs out of new ones and how we might resist enclosure and reclaim commons.

Recommended resources for this EcoGathering: