The Tufts Equity Research Group

This is a video of me and my colleague Dr. Wenhui Feng discussing the Tufts Equity Research Group. I talk broadly about our research, and Wenhui shares some specific findings about COVID-19 vaccination. We are in the field right now with a new national survey, so please stay tuned for results and check out our interactive website about equity in the USA, which I describe in the video. This presentation was at the Tufts Clinical & Translational Institute (CTSI)’s annual Translational Research Day 2021.

Congratulations to the Recipients of the Civvys Award!

Please join us in praising the winners of the Civvys!

Recently six organizations, were recognized by the American Civic Collaboration Awards during their virtual livestream ceremony.  This year’s ceremony saw a peak number in nominations, reflecting the growing civic efforts happening in the United States.

Congratulations to The Civic Responsibility Project, SA2020, Green Our Planet, Pandemic Voting Project, Issue Voter, DoSomething.org’s Our 2020 Vision campaign for elevating democracy with your impactful civic- oriented work!

Read more below for more details on the winners or navigate to the original post here.


Six Exemplary Projects Named Civvys Winners

The American Civic Collaboration Awards honored six organizations for their impactful work across the country in civic engagement in a livestreamed, virtual ceremony on April 19th.

The six winners represent outstanding examples of civic-oriented work that elevate democracy at every level of American life. The 2020-21 award cycle saw the highest number of nominees, making for a competitive selection process — and demonstrating the growing breadth and depth of civic efforts happening across the nation.

In case you missed it, you can stream the ceremony again at civvys.org. This year’s awards were hosted by F. Willis Johnson, Jr., Vice President of Partnerships and Programming with Bridge Alliance, and feature award announcements by esteemed members of the Civvys Review committee. This year’s program also included a special tribute to Joel Odom, who accepted the Youth award on behalf of Generation Nation last year and sadly lost his life in 2020. Join us in honoring Joel and the work of all Civvys nominees, finalists and winners.

In total,18 finalists were selected from this year’s nominees in three different categories. Read on to meet this year’s 6 Civvys winners, and stream the ceremony if you missed it.

Meet The Civvys Winners

Please join us in congratulating all finalists and honorable mentions!

NATIONAL WINNER – CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY PROJECT

The Civic Responsibility Project brings the broader business community together in collaboration to support voter participation and civic engagement. Research shows that supporting democracy is good for business – and the Civic Responsibility Project helps brands create and implement civic responsibility programs that get their employees and consumers actively engaged in our democracy. Through their work, thousands of companies actively supported voting in the 2020 election, and other industries can take lessons from this coalition, service-based model.

LOCAL WINNER — SA2020

Throughout the year 2020, nearly 12,300 people in San Antonio reaffirmed and strengthened a shared vision originally created by nearly 6,000 people in 2010. Both processes were led by SA2020, the nonprofit organization responsible for driving progress toward San Antonio’s Community Vision through research, storytelling, and practice. This work includes measuring progress on more than 60 community indicators, telling stories that broaden perspectives and reshape narratives about San Antonio, and holding institutions accountable to leading change. SA2020’s work is a model for broad based community visioning and impact.

YOUTH WINNER – GREEN OUR PLANET

From its hub in Las Vegas, Green Our Planet has projects all over the U.S. and is making immediate impact as the largest “school garden” program. In a creative approach, they bring together STEM learning, hydroponics, school yards, and the business world of farmers’ markets, to help young people connect with the Earth, their own skills and knowledge, and civic responsibility in communities. Across 10 states, 3500 teachers, thousands of students – Green Our Planet demonstrates impact, teaching self-reliance and hard work, entrepreneurship and climate science, and healthy living and eating. It’s a holistic, engaging, real approach to getting young kids involved in community and civic life.

COMMITTEE CHOICE AWARD – PANDEMIC VOTING PROJECT

Missouri’s impressive voter turnout in 2020 had the Pandemic Voting Project to thank, organized by the NAACP Missouri State Conference and Show Me Integrity. This truly cross-partisan initiative brought together Republicans and Democrats, the public and private sector, as well as an initiative called DoctorsForDemocracy, that collaborated to help more people in Missouri vote safely. Together, they gave people more ways to vote absentee, supported election authorities, registered and educated voters, and launched new technology at MoVote.org that registered 16,000 voters with a 92% voting rate.

COMMITTEE CHOICE AWARD — MARIA YUAN AND ISSUE VOTER

Issue Voter connects constituents to members of congress and uses technology to make peoples’ voices heard. Given the urgent need for an easy, clear understanding of issues, Issue Voter breaks down complicated policy and ballot measures and helps citizens to be more informed. Maria Yuan was also nominated for her work in streamlining data collection to better track and combat anti-Asian hate crimes. Her work in gathering, organizing and disseminating key data – on ballot issues and hate crimes alike – provides a replicable, scalable model that other civic collaborators might learn from.

COMMITTEE CHOICE AWARD — DOSOMETHING.ORG

The pandemic, the election, and protests for racial justice all changed the way we live in 2020, but young people were especially affected, as school and major milestones were disrupted. DoSomething.org’s Our 2020 Vision campaign mobilized in response to give young people more of a say – with their vote. The “Our 2020 Vision” campaign registered 250,000 voters all online, and 37% of those were rural voters. DoSomething.org’s work focused on gathering broad stakeholders, serving immediate needs and making an impact.

Six civic engagement organizations were recognized Monday night for their work to strengthen democracy in a cross-partisan way.

Keep The Collaboration Going

Ready to help repair America’s divides, one conversation at a time? America Talks is a powerful two-day event that invites Americans to connect one-on-one, face-to-face on video across our political divides. Find dialogue and bridge-building events near you during the National Week of Conversation.

Mark your calendar for America Talks and the National Week of Conversation, kicking off June 12!

Find the original version of this post on the American Civic Collaborations Awards’ site at: www.civvys.org/the-2020-civvys

 

 

wildlife commons

As a follower of the late Elinor Ostrom (1933-2012), I am glad to see Michelle Nijhuis‘s article “The Miracle of the Commons” in Aeon. Nijhuis draws on her book, Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction (2021), which looks important.

I would offer the following very brief summary as an enticement to read more of the article. We can think of beloved megafauna, like wild elephants and lions, as public resources. Their survival is good for human beings in general, yet individual humans can profit from hunting them one by one.

If we apply a simple tragedy-of-the-commons model, then these beasts are doomed unless “something is done.” And that something must be some kind of enforced prohibition on hunting, perhaps connected to state ownership of the land. However, we should be concerned that the state will use its powers badly–that poachers will bribe wardens, or officials will prove incompetent, or authorities will turn a blind eye to development.

Ostrom found, instead, that communities are entirely capable of managing and protecting vulnerable public resources. They need mechanisms for allocating tasks and benefits and making decisions–and the authority to do so.

Nijhuis shows that communities in Namibia have been very successful at preserving endangered species when permitted–and, to some extent, supported–to manage these commons themselves. This is a perfect example of a commons as neither a “tragedy” (doomed to failure), nor a “comedy” (sure to work out well), but a “drama” whose outcome depends on us.

See also many previous posts about Ostrom.

Teacher Conversation: Middle School Students Apply Civic Learning to Curb Community Crime

From our dear friend Mary Ellen Daneels with Illinois Civics:

Civics is all around us. There is a lot to know about the government and how “We the People” interact with the government and each other. Programming at the Lou Frey Institute (LFI)  is designed to help the youngest members of our communities expand their civic literacy. 

LFI has developed in partnership with the Illinois Civics Hub, the Guardians of Democracy Program is an online professional development program with extended learning opportunities for interested 6-12 educators. Dr. Shakeba Shields, an instructional coach at Orange County Public Schools has participated in the pilot program. She recently helped 7th-grade students in a Civics course at a Title 1 school explore the essential question, “Are schools doing enough to curb crime in the community?” This endeavor allowed students to apply their civic knowledge and skills, aligned to Florida’s Civics End of Course Assessment, to help make, “a more perfect union.” 

We asked Dr. Shields to explain a bit more about this experiential learning that encouraged the development of civic and political skills. Here are her responses to the questions we posed.

How did this activity deepen students’ disciplinary content knowledge and/or meet learning targets?

This project helped to deepen students’ understanding of the second amendment. Students were able to evaluate the pros and cons of gun control and consider how schools can help with ensuring students are safe in their communities. 

How did this project deepen students’ knowledge of themselves and their community?

Students completed Harvard University’s Implicit Bias test on weapons and gained some  insight into their own biases regarding who and what poses danger. They were to  carefully classify items as weapons or harmless immediately after seeing a Black or Whiteface. The students were surprised to learn that as with many other respondents,  they too have some hidden views of Blacks having weapons. In our discussion of our topic students drew attention to several issues in the community that contributes to crimes. These include poverty, lack of access, insufficient lighting, deplorable buildings, and family attitudes. 

What comes next? What did students identify as future opportunities to address this issue?

The students created a survey with possible solutions to address the issue such as starting new clubs on campus and increasing security at school and police presence in the community. However, the most glaring response involved bullying. Students believed that school leaders had a major role to play in curbing community crime by focusing on students who are being bullied. This is due to the fact that many off-campus fights occur due to on-campus and online bullying.  Almost 90% of the 129 respondents agreed that the schools needed to pay more attention to this issue and these students. 

Did you receive any feedback from your community on this project?

  • “This shows us that our kids actually have solutions and are able to lead.” Administrator 
  • “What a heavy topic? I’m glad to see that they handled it so well.” Teacher
  • “I like coming up with these ideas. It makes me feel important.” Student

What advice would you give teachers thinking about opportunities for engaging their students in applying knowledge and skills to better their community?

My advice to other teachers would be to start small and include the students in EVERY step of the process. You will be surprised how interested they are in being a part of these types of projects. 

Thank you to Dr. Shields for taking the time to talk with us! You can learn more about the free Guardians of Democracy professional development program here!

the case for (and against) nonviolence

During a whole semester reading and debating Martin Luther King Jr, I think my students and I built a richer understanding of nonviolence as a political tradition and alternative. Several students noted that they had moved from thinking of nonviolence as a restriction or limitation (i.e., you must exclude violent means) to a powerful approach of its own.

The Case for Nonviolence

  1. It tends to work. Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan find that nonviolence has a higher rate of success than violent methods, at least in their sample of large movements aimed at major political change. (See Why Civil Resistance Works.)

One reason is that nonviolence actually draws larger and more diverse participants, and big and diverse movements are more likely to win. It is true that some people feel a need to employ violent means, but they tend to be tilted toward young men. Nonviolence broadens the base of a movement. I also think that nonviolent movements are more favorable to intense internal debate and discussion, and that is useful for success. (See the value of diversity and discussion within social movements.)

It is worth noting, however, that the success-rate of nonviolent social movements has fallen during the 2000s. I interpret both nonviolence and state repression as general approaches that evolve over time as their practitioners innovate and learn. I think that nonviolent strategies improved dramatically from 1955-1989 while autocrats stagnated, but the autocrats are learning fast. (See why autocrats are winning (right now).)

  1. It improves the odds that the resulting system will be democratic.

This is another empirical finding from Chenoweth and Stephan. One reason is that nonviolence allows a negotiated settlement and the peaceful exit of the incumbents. Autocrats have reason to fear violent movements and may respond by fighting almost to the death. They are more likely to settle with a movement that demonstrates nonviolence.

Relatedly, nonviolence prevents a cycle of escalating violence that makes democracy harder to attain. And it compels a movement to use relatively democratic methods for making decisions internally, because the leaders cannot violently compel their own people. That prepares the movement to govern democratically if it wins. And it gives the participants the specific skills and values that will be most useful to them in democratic governance.

  1. It is a variety of self-limitation, and self-limitation is valuable

Movements face twin risks: heating up too much (until they cannot sustain the intensity), or else dwindling away. It’s important to keep the intensity within bounds. One way to do that is to establish explicit or implicit norms of behavior. Nonviolence is not the only norm that works to regulate intensity. In the Intifada, the rule was to use rocks, not guns or bombs. From a pragmatic perspective, that worked–the effort persisted for two years. However, nonviolence has the advantage of being an intuitive, bright line that people understand, even under duress.

  1. It brings a particular kind of dignity, self-respect or efficacy to the participants

Martin Luther King Jr. described his goal as “seeking to instill in my people a sense of dignity and self-respect.” He recalls that African American Montgomerians “who had previously trembled before the law were now proud to be arrested for the cause of freedom. … They looked the solicitor and the judge in the eye with a courage and dignity for which there was no answer.”

It is possible that nonviolence is especially likely to enhance self-respect, because nonviolent movements are self-reliant. They don’t depend on guns, which are impersonal tools (and are often supplied by outsiders of some kind). The accomplishments of a nonviolent movement are theirs alone.

  1. It is compatible with uncertainty about one’s goals and strategies.

Gandhi emphasizes this point. If you do not know (for sure) what your ultimate objective should be, and you are not certain about the best path forward, you should prefer nonviolence. Violence is irrevocable and closes options. (see Gandhi on the primacy of means over ends.) As King says, nonviolence permits learning, including learning from the other side: “Here is the true meaning and value of compassion and nonviolence, when it helps us to see the enemy’s point of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment of ourselves.”

I recently found a very nice statement of a similar idea at the very end of The Combahee River Collective Statement (1977) which is a seminal text for today’s social movements:

In the practice of our politics we do not believe that the end always justifies the means. Many reactionary and destructive acts have been done in the name of achieving “correct” political goals. As feminists we do not want to mess over people in the name of politics. We believe in collective process and a nonhierarchical distribution of power within our own group and in our vision of a revolutionary society. We are committed to a continual examination of our politics as they develop through criticism and self-criticism as an essential aspect of our practice.

  1. It might be particularly relevant to a dispersed minority group that confronts a basically stable regime.

King depicted violence as futile in a situation like the USA in his time:

When one tries to pin down advocates of violence as to what acts would be effective, the answers are blatantly illogical. Sometimes they talk of overthrowing racist state and local governments. They fail to see that no internal revolution has ever succeeded in overthrowing a government by violence unless the government had already lost the allegiance and effective control of its armed forces. Anyone in his right mind knows that this will not happen in the United States. In a violent racial situation, the power structure has the local police, the state troopers, the national guard and finally the army to call on, all of which are predominantly white.

King thought that nonviolence looked promising in comparison.

  1. It is compatible with ethical scruples, including the principle that you should not kill.

Maybe sometimes we do have to kill. I don’t see how Auschwitz could have been closed without killing the German soldiers posted to the beaches of Normandy (and many, many more). However, if nonviolence has at least as good a chance of succeeding as violence does, then surely, it is better not to kill.

II. The Case Against?

  1. It doesn’t work all the time.

(Would it have ended slavery or defeated Nazism?)

2. It does not satisfy all kinds of people

Maybe more people will participate in a nonviolent social movement than an armed insurrection, but what about the people who feel compelled to arms? Don’t they need some kind of outlet?

3. It demands sacrifice–up to and including death–from the people who should be least obliged to sacrifice, those who are oppressed.

(Then again, a violent campaign is also bound to cause casualties, including completely innocent ones. And to leave the status quo unchallenged is to tolerate ongoing violence and oppression.) See: the kind of sacrifice required in nonviolence and the question of sacrifice in politics.)

4. It might rely on certain external factors, such as media and partisan competition.

Both Gandhi and King were able to play to audiences of voters who had reasonably free access to media and choices at the ballot box. Even though most African Americans and all Indians were disenfranchised, white British and US voters had the power to make change. That means that success is somewhat contingent on factors that cannot always be counted on. Contrary to I.4, above, nonviolence is not always self-reliant.

5. It requires a mildness or compassion toward opponents that they may not deserve.

(Then again, I am not sure that defeating an opponent by using effective non-violent means is all that kind.)

Summer Research Fellowship at Public Agenda

NCDD Member Public Agenda is looking to hire two Research Fellows for the Healthier Democracies Project.  The Healthier Democracies Project, concentrates on identifying innovative participative democratic practices in foreign governments at the local and state levels to demonstrate back to American public officials examples of what can be implemented to fortify our own democratic processes in the United States.

The duration of the engagement is short term, approximately 25 hours a week for 10 weeks, to be completed remotely.  The position calls for a Master’s degree, bilingualism in English and Spanish/Portuguese, experience in civic engagement or public participation in participatory democracy to conduct international qualitative case study research.  Students from a varied range of disciplinary backgrounds are encouraged to apply.

This is an astounding  opportunity for those looking to broaden their network around the world with a community of public participation professionals, receive mentoring on conducting research in an international context, experience working in grant funded research environment and the chance to publish with Public Agenda!

Please send a cover letter, cv, writing sample and 3 reference letters to Ms. Mikayla Townsend, mtownsend@publicagenda.org,  by May 14, 2021.

Read more below on the needs, desired qualifications and compensation for the Fellowship and find the original post here.


Summer Senior Research Fellow: Healthier Democracies

Salary: $30/hourly, or about $7500 total for the summer

Job Type: Full-time/Part-time/Contract

Term: A 10-week contract, with an approximate start date of May 25 (dates flexible)

Reports to: Associate Director of National Engagement

Location: Remote

Introduction:
Public Agenda, a nonprofit organization that focuses on strengthening democracy, is currently seeking 2 graduate students with experience in civic engagement, public participation, or participatory democracy to conduct international qualitative case study research as a part of the Healthier Democracies project. Students may come from a range of disciplinary backgrounds including Communication, Political Science, Sociology, Public Policy, or other degree programs.

This is a remote, short-term, part-time position for summer 2021. Students will work a total of 250 hours, approximately 25 hours a week for 10 weeks, however hour allocation can be flexible according to students’ scheduling needs. Compensation will be $30/hourly, or about $7500 total for the summer.

The Healthier Democracies project is an international research endeavor

funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The goal is to identify examples of innovative participatory democracy practices embedded in local and state government systems in places outside the US, and then bring them back to American public officials as examples of what can, and should be done to strengthen democratic practice in the United States.

What Students Will Do:
– Schedule and conduct interviews with public officials in locations around the world

– Participate in thematic analysis of interview transcripts

– Compile, read, and provide reviews and summaries of existing literature

– Author case study documents for a professional/scholarly audience

Candidate Qualifications:
– Master’s Degree required (communication, public policy, political science, sociology, economics, or related fields)

– Some doctoral-level graduate work preferred

– Coursework or research experience in the civic engagement field, including around participatory democracy and public participation

– Experience in qualitative case study research, particularly with document review, semi-structured interviewing, data analysis, and writing

– Comfort conducting interviews and writing academic papers in English

– Ability to engage in some meetings on an Eastern Time Zone

Preferred Qualifications:
– Bilingual in English/Spanish, or English/Portuguese

– Please highlight if you speak any other languages as well

We Can Offer:
– Compensation of $7500 for the summer ($30/hourly)

– Mentoring around how to conduct qualitative research in international contexts

– Opportunities to publish work with Public Agenda, as well as in scholarly journals and national media outlets

– Networking opportunities with public participation professionals across the world

– A change to explore working in a grant-funded research nonprofit environment

Application Materials:
Please submit a brief cover letter, a CV, a writing sample, and the names and contact information for 3 references, via email, to Ms. Mikayla Townsend, mtownsend@publicagenda.org, no later than May 14, 2021

Statement About Candidates:
Equal employment opportunity etc. Students from international or US based universities are eligible to apply.

Public Agenda is committed to equal employment opportunity and diversity in the workplace. We will not discriminate against employees or applicants for employment on any legally-recognized basis [“protected class”] including, but not limited to: race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, physical or mental disability, genetic information, veteran status, uniform service member status or any other protected class under federal, state, or local law.

About Us:
Public Agenda is a national, nonpartisan, nonprofit research and public engagement organization headquartered in New York City. We strive to strengthen democracy and expand opportunity for all Americans. Learn more about us at https://www.publicagenda.org/

Find the original version of this post on the Public Agenda’s site at: www.publicagenda.org/careers/

 

Peter Linebaugh on What the History of Commoning Reveals

Peter Linebaugh has been an insightful and prolific historian and commoner for nearly fifty years, He is one of the most illustrious historians of the commons in the world today, best known for his social and political histories of commoners caught in struggles with state power and early capitalists.

I caught up with Peter recently for a talk about his scholarship and political thinking about the commons in history, now available on Episode #14 of my podcast Frontiers of Commoning. We explored such issues as the importance of the Charter of the Forest and Magna Carta; the criminalization of customary practices as early capitalism arose; the special relationship of women to the commons and therefore their persecution; and the role of commoning in struggles for political emancipation.

Professor Peter Linebaugh

In the 1960s, Linebaugh was a student of British labor historian E.P. Thompson, a towering figure who inspired a generation of left historians to show how history can illuminate contemporary life and politics and provide strategic guidance. 

Linebaugh, now retired from the University of Toledo after stints at many major universities, has a way of conjuring up entire ways of knowing and being that have disappeared. At the University of Warwick, in England in the 1970s, Linebaugh was part of a group of historians who called themselves the “crime collective” because they studied the “social banditry” (Eric Hobsbawm’s term) that was used to resist early capitalism in England.

Crimes against property had been an essential part of the transition from feudalism to capitalism, as Linebaugh discovered. And so the “crime collective” scholars began to study highway robbery, smuggling, and piracy through the lens of sociology, history, and politics.

One of Linebaugh’s first books, The London Hanged, examined the role of public executions and state terror in combating “crimes” against early capitalism. The historians associated with E.P. Thompson also focused on how craftsmen, newly excluded from owning the means of their own production, began to insist on their traditional craft practices and perquisites. But now, new capitalist practices, as enforced by state law, were producing new types of “crimes.” Linebaugh, in short, has documented many forms of resistance to the fledgling capitalist order.

In my interview, this topic prompted Linebaugh to note a Roman aphorism that law creates the crime -- but ordinary people rarely are the ones writing the law in the first place. This prompted him to recite the famous protest poem of the 17th Century: “The law locks up the man and woman / who steals the goose from off the common. / But lets the greater villain loose / who steals the common from the goose.”

Another book written by Linebaugh, with Marcus Rediker -- The Many-Headed Hydra: A Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic – examined the lives of Englishmen victimized by early capitalism. Transatlantic sailors, slaves, pirates, laborers, and indentured servants were often forced into dismal servitude and immersation, but they sometimes found novel ways to liberate themselves and assert a social solidarity.

One of Linebaugh’s most remarkable books, to my mind, is The Magna Carta Manifesto: Liberties and Commons for All, published in 2006. It’s about dispossessed peasants in the 1200s who helped secure the Charter of the Forest as a landmark written guarantee of commoners’ legal rights. For most contemporaries, the Magna Carta was seen as a totem of western, bourgeois law, and its companion document, the Charter of the Forest, as an arcane historical curiosity. Linebaugh’s scholarship helped excavate the real significance of the two documents to commoners, showing how they helped provide a bulwark of protection against rapacious state power and the wealthy.  

A more recent book by Linebaugh, Red Round Globe Hot Burning, tells a sprawling story about two star-crossed lovers in the 18th Century, Ned Marcus and his Black Caribbean wife Kate, as players in the American, French, Haitian and failed Irish revolutions.

Linebaugh’s recovery of the commons of centuries past is a gift to imagining a different, better future. I still savor a bit of poetry that he retrieved from a laboring commoner, John Clare, who in the 1820s described walking across Emmonsailes Heath as a child and getting lost:

“So I eagerly wanderd on & rambled along the furze the whole day till I got out of my knowledge when the very wild flowers seemd to forget me & I imagind they were the inhabitants of a new countrys the very sun seemd to be a new one & shining in a different quarter of the sky.” 

Indeed, we have wandered out of our knowledge and lost track of the commons. But there is another sun, shining in a different quarter of the sky. You can listen to my interview with Peter Linebaugh here.

Peter Linebaugh on What the History of Commoning Reveals

Peter Linebaugh has been an insightful and prolific historian and commoner for nearly fifty years, He is one of the most illustrious historians of the commons in the world today, best known for his social and political histories of commoners caught in struggles with state power and early capitalists.

I caught up with Peter recently for a talk about his scholarship and political thinking about the commons in history, now available on Episode #14 of my podcast Frontiers of Commoning. We explored such issues as the importance of the Charter of the Forest and Magna Carta; the criminalization of customary practices as early capitalism arose; the special relationship of women to the commons and therefore their persecution; and the role of commoning in struggles for political emancipation.

Professor Peter Linebaugh

In the 1960s, Linebaugh was a student of British labor historian E.P. Thompson, a towering figure who inspired a generation of left historians to show how history can illuminate contemporary life and politics and provide strategic guidance. 

Linebaugh, now retired from the University of Toledo after stints at many major universities, has a way of conjuring up entire ways of knowing and being that have disappeared. At the University of Warwick, in England in the 1970s, Linebaugh was part of a group of historians who called themselves the “crime collective” because they studied the “social banditry” (Eric Hobsbawm’s term) that was used to resist early capitalism in England.

Crimes against property had been an essential part of the transition from feudalism to capitalism, as Linebaugh discovered. And so the “crime collective” scholars began to study highway robbery, smuggling, and piracy through the lens of sociology, history, and politics.

One of Linebaugh’s first books, The London Hanged, examined the role of public executions and state terror in combating “crimes” against early capitalism. The historians associated with E.P. Thompson also focused on how craftsmen, newly excluded from owning the means of their own production, began to insist on their traditional craft practices and perquisites. But now, new capitalist practices, as enforced by state law, were producing new types of “crimes.” Linebaugh, in short, has documented many forms of resistance to the fledgling capitalist order.

In my interview, this topic prompted Linebaugh to note a Roman aphorism that law creates the crime -- but ordinary people rarely are the ones writing the law in the first place. This prompted him to recite the famous protest poem of the 17th Century: “The law locks up the man and woman / who steals the goose from off the common. / But lets the greater villain loose / who steals the common from the goose.”

Another book written by Linebaugh, with Marcus Rediker -- The Many-Headed Hydra: A Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic – examined the lives of Englishmen victimized by early capitalism. Transatlantic sailors, slaves, pirates, laborers, and indentured servants were often forced into dismal servitude and immersation, but they sometimes found novel ways to liberate themselves and assert a social solidarity.

One of Linebaugh’s most remarkable books, to my mind, is The Magna Carta Manifesto: Liberties and Commons for All, published in 2006. It’s about dispossessed peasants in the 1200s who helped secure the Charter of the Forest as a landmark written guarantee of commoners’ legal rights. For most contemporaries, the Magna Carta was seen as a totem of western, bourgeois law, and its companion document, the Charter of the Forest, as an arcane historical curiosity. Linebaugh’s scholarship helped excavate the real significance of the two documents to commoners, showing how they helped provide a bulwark of protection against rapacious state power and the wealthy.  

A more recent book by Linebaugh, Red Round Globe Hot Burning, tells a sprawling story about two star-crossed lovers in the 18th Century, Ned Marcus and his Black Caribbean wife Kate, as players in the American, French, Haitian and failed Irish revolutions.

Linebaugh’s recovery of the commons of centuries past is a gift to imagining a different, better future. I still savor a bit of poetry that he retrieved from a laboring commoner, John Clare, who in the 1820s described walking across Emmonsailes Heath as a child and getting lost:

“So I eagerly wanderd on & rambled along the furze the whole day till I got out of my knowledge when the very wild flowers seemd to forget me & I imagind they were the inhabitants of a new countrys the very sun seemd to be a new one & shining in a different quarter of the sky.” 

Indeed, we have wandered out of our knowledge and lost track of the commons. But there is another sun, shining in a different quarter of the sky. You can listen to my interview with Peter Linebaugh here.

Peter Linebaugh on What the History of Commoning Reveals

Peter Linebaugh has been an insightful and prolific historian and commoner for nearly fifty years, He is one of the most illustrious historians of the commons in the world today, best known for his social and political histories of commoners caught in struggles with state power and early capitalists.

I caught up with Peter recently for a talk about his scholarship and political thinking about the commons in history, now available on Episode #14 of my podcast Frontiers of Commoning. We explored such issues as the importance of the Charter of the Forest and Magna Carta; the criminalization of customary practices as early capitalism arose; the special relationship of women to the commons and therefore their persecution; and the role of commoning in struggles for political emancipation.

Professor Peter Linebaugh

In the 1960s, Linebaugh was a student of British labor historian E.P. Thompson, a towering figure who inspired a generation of left historians to show how history can illuminate contemporary life and politics and provide strategic guidance. 

Linebaugh, now retired from the University of Toledo after stints at many major universities, has a way of conjuring up entire ways of knowing and being that have disappeared. At the University of Warwick, in England in the 1970s, Linebaugh was part of a group of historians who called themselves the “crime collective” because they studied the “social banditry” (Eric Hobsbawm’s term) that was used to resist early capitalism in England.

Crimes against property had been an essential part of the transition from feudalism to capitalism, as Linebaugh discovered. And so the “crime collective” scholars began to study highway robbery, smuggling, and piracy through the lens of sociology, history, and politics.

One of Linebaugh’s first books, The London Hanged, examined the role of public executions and state terror in combating “crimes” against early capitalism. The historians associated with E.P. Thompson also focused on how craftsmen, newly excluded from owning the means of their own production, began to insist on their traditional craft practices and perquisites. But now, new capitalist practices, as enforced by state law, were producing new types of “crimes.” Linebaugh, in short, has documented many forms of resistance to the fledgling capitalist order.

In my interview, this topic prompted Linebaugh to note a Roman aphorism that law creates the crime -- but ordinary people rarely are the ones writing the law in the first place. This prompted him to recite the famous protest poem of the 17th Century: “The law locks up the man and woman / who steals the goose from off the common. / But lets the greater villain loose / who steals the common from the goose.”

Another book written by Linebaugh, with Marcus Rediker -- The Many-Headed Hydra: A Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic – examined the lives of Englishmen victimized by early capitalism. Transatlantic sailors, slaves, pirates, laborers, and indentured servants were often forced into dismal servitude and immersation, but they sometimes found novel ways to liberate themselves and assert a social solidarity.

One of Linebaugh’s most remarkable books, to my mind, is The Magna Carta Manifesto: Liberties and Commons for All, published in 2006. It’s about dispossessed peasants in the 1200s who helped secure the Charter of the Forest as a landmark written guarantee of commoners’ legal rights. For most contemporaries, the Magna Carta was seen as a totem of western, bourgeois law, and its companion document, the Charter of the Forest, as an arcane historical curiosity. Linebaugh’s scholarship helped excavate the real significance of the two documents to commoners, showing how they helped provide a bulwark of protection against rapacious state power and the wealthy.  

A more recent book by Linebaugh, Red Round Globe Hot Burning, tells a sprawling story about two star-crossed lovers in the 18th Century, Ned Marcus and his Black Caribbean wife Kate, as players in the American, French, Haitian and failed Irish revolutions.

Linebaugh’s recovery of the commons of centuries past is a gift to imagining a different, better future. I still savor a bit of poetry that he retrieved from a laboring commoner, John Clare, who in the 1820s described walking across Emmonsailes Heath as a child and getting lost:

“So I eagerly wanderd on & rambled along the furze the whole day till I got out of my knowledge when the very wild flowers seemd to forget me & I imagind they were the inhabitants of a new countrys the very sun seemd to be a new one & shining in a different quarter of the sky.” 

Indeed, we have wandered out of our knowledge and lost track of the commons. But there is another sun, shining in a different quarter of the sky. You can listen to my interview with Peter Linebaugh here.