Interpreting Development Book

David Bollier is far from many of the more revolutionary notions of the commons, as his writing makes clear: "It is not market activity itself which is objectionable; it is the intrusion of market activity into the commons on terms that expropriate public wealth and/ or violate important shared values." The main concern of his book is that Americans are losing their rights to the commons, and therefore their heritage as a commonwealth, assets, and potentially democratic traditions. Like the others, he sees these commons as very broadly defined: social institutions and cultural traditions, democratic values, wildlife and national forests, public spaces in cities, and communications media. His book essentially outlines what has already been lost and what is still left to lose, questioning the rhetoric of the market that presents itself as both timeless and objective, when in fact it is neither as it seeks to guarantee "continued private access to the commons by requiring that everything be for sale." This includes natural resources, ranging from plant genes to mineral deposits, the internet, created through massive government subsidies to be a free and open sharing of knowledge and information, the academic traditions of openness, information sharing and peer review, and cultural and public spaces. This occurs through appropriation and enclosures, as private companies gain control over a resource, shifting not simply the ownership, but often the management and character of the resource in the process.