Abstract

The article examines the current reemergence of movements addressing the question of «common goods», or «commons», or the «common». It points out that while numerous initiatives and inquiries relative to this issue focus on the economic and juridical conditions of the sustainability of shared resources that are subject to the reflexive organization of a community of users, those projects which have been developed in southern Europe enable us to apprehend the notion of the «common» more in terms of a collective practice of self-institution and self-government. Among these, the article considers cases of collective self-management in Greece, elements of the beni comuni movement in Italy, and certain elements in the renewal of the political in Catalonia. It concludes by noting that the political implications of these initiatives are primarily in terms of the «relativization of the State», through the development of capacities of economic and political organization which are autonomous, a fortiori when developed inside the very institutions of the State.