The Centre for Future Natures is a networking and research initiative that aims to share and amplify stories and knowledge from the spaces, movements and struggles for the commons and against enclosures.

Through research, arts, storytelling and networking, Future Natures explores the relationships, practices and values involved in commoning and other related activities that emphasise autonomy, reciprocity and care.

We are building an international network, an online platform and a research initiative, including diverse communities of researchers, commoners, and artists, writers, makers and others. Through these activities, we aim to reveal possibilities and pathways to abundant, ecological and democratic futures.

What problems does the Centre address?

Human relationships with the rest of the world are often framed in terms of resources, profit, markets, capital and growth, driven by narratives of planetary crisis, and the urge to enclose and privatise living beings and places. But around the world, in diverse ways, there exist many other forms of relationships and ways of thinking, relating, working and being.

Future Natures exists to challenge top-down, one-size-fits-all ‘solutions’ to ecological and social challenges which seek ever greater degrees of control and technical management over social life and nature. In contrast, commoning has become an important part of an evolving global politics of alternatives.

Commoning involves the relationships, practices, and values by which communities create, govern, reproduce and defend resources and other forms of social wealth together. These may be in the domains of nature and natural resources; land and food; municipal arrangements, and spaces in and around cities and towns; and knowledge, technology and culture, including digital spaces, infrastructures and tools. There is a long history of enclosures – attempts to make commons into commodities, to privatise or restrict access to them – and many examples and stories of resistance.

Commoning practices challenge dominant ways of thinking about nature, and about the relationships of humans with other parts of nature and with technology. In turn, they also produce new actions, ecologies and possibilities. Rather than adopting strict definitions of commons and commoning, we aim to explore areas of interest, make connections, and work across boundaries.

How Future Natures works

Future Natures brings together a network to share learning and insights across these domains of commoning, and across geographies and disciplinary boundaries. We aim to grow the network by establishing links with individuals and networks around the world who bring diverse perspectives and experience to similar themes.

The network creates spaces for discussions and exchanges around art and creativity, research and practical responses to struggles and challenges.

The Future Natures website aims to show stories and experiences of commoning from the network and beyond, as well as a series of comics, practical guides and other publications, with an occasional magazine. It also provides a central focus for events, conferences, discussions and other interventions.

Future Natures is part of the IDS Strategic Research Initiative in Climate and Environmental Justice.

Website: futurenatures.org