Governing Commons Through Uncertainty
Towards a Link Between Commons and Pastoralist Territories of Life
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 23311496 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ali Razmkhah (0009-0005-6785-6852, Ca' Foscari University of Venice), Nina Aminzadeh Goharrizi (0009-0007-0242-6856, Ca' Foscari University of Venice) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 20 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 252-267 |
| Publication date | 2026-07-29 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Journal of the Commons (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1875-0281 • E-ISSN: 1875-0281 |
| Publisher | Ubiquity Press, Ltd. (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.5334/ijc.1623 |
| OpenAlex | W7171619387 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 28 |
Pastoralist communities across the world have long governed shared rangelands through adaptive institutions that convert ecological uncertainty into cooperation and resilience. Yet dominant conservation and development paradigms continue to misrepresent mobility as disorder and collective use as degradation. Drawing on interdisciplinary literature and comparative examples, this article explores how pastoralism, by integrating Ostrom’s design principles with Indigenous and Community Conserved Areas (ICCAs)-territories of life, functions as a dynamic and resilient form of commons governance capable of addressing contemporary socio-ecological challenges. The analysis traces the socio-ecological foundations of pastoralism, its institutional evolution, the misrepresentation of mobility within conservation, and the adaptive transitions unfolding under political, economic, and climatic pressures. The article argues that pastoral communities provide vital insights for governing common resources: embracing mobility, reciprocity, and cooperation under uncertainty. Recognizing pastoral territories of life as legitimate governance systems can advance both biodiversity and culture, demonstrating that the future of the commons lies not in control, but in coexistence.
Commons · Corporate governance · Environmental governance · Global commons · Indigenous · Misrepresentation · Pastoralism · Traditional knowledge · Indigenous Studies and Ecology · Land Use and Ecosystem Services · Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology
Transitions
Dynamics and Resilience of Rangelands and Pastoral Peoples Around the Globe
The role of social institutions in indigenous Andean Pastoralists’ adaptation to climate-related water hazards
Dynamics of pastoral traditional ecological knowledge
Toward a holistic understanding of pastoralism
Institution Shopping and Resilience Grabbing
Open property regimes
Reasserting the commons
Living Off Uncertainty
Constitutionality
Pastoralists are Peoples
Common Property Institutions and Sustainable Governance of Resources
Governance, Mobility, and Pastureland Ecology. An Eco-Anthropological Study of Three Pastoral Commons in Northeastern Andalusia
Climate Change and the Challenge of Non-equilibrium Thinking
Institutional Bricolage, Conflict and Cooperation in Usangu, Tanzania
Global Land Grabs
The Role of Livestock Mobility in the Livelihood Strategies of Rural Peoples in Semi-Arid West Africa
Linguistic, Cultural, and Biological Diversity
Pastoralists and peasants
Green Grabbing
New frontiers of land control
Spatial and Social Boundaries and the Paradox of Pastoral Land Tenure
Relationships Between Religious Beliefs and Mountain Pasture Uses
| Highly cited | No |
|---|