Course description
Territories and areas that Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) govern, manage and conserve are increasingly recognized by scientists, international agencies, nongovernmental and grassroots organizations, as key to a sustainable planet.
Hundreds of thousands of such areas exist globally, covering millions of square kilometers of land and seascapes on all five continents, contributing to the conservation and sustainable use of a significant proportion of the world’s natural resources and biodiversity. However, these systems are under threats and often have little to no formal recognition or support from nation-state governments. These territories are called by many local names (e.g. cayolars, regole, beni comuni, sections de commune, patriziati) in Europe, but can be classified under the rubric of “commons”, which are geographical areas where groups of people collectively manage their resources.
Commons as a concept was first misunderstood as a case of mismanagement of open access resources by Hardin, an idea which unfortunately gained a lot of attention. Later, Elinor Ostrom, laureate of a Nobel prize for her work on these institutions, helped us to understand that commons are rules-based institutions which ensure the future of a shared resource; her 8 rules of common property institutions guide commons work around the world. In Europe we see active commons movements in both rural and urban areas.
In this course, we will explore the challenges of IPLCs and various movements by these groups to defend their rights. Globally we will explore famous cases from the Amazon such as the Sarayaku and the Sacred Headwaters Initiative, then at the European level we will explore cases from Spain, Finland, France, and Switzerland, and finally considering the Italian case. Italy and its legal reforms in the last 7 years are a stellar example of how legal change can support recognition for commons and the people who depend on them. We will discuss global movements and associations such as the ICCA Consortium and the International Association for the Studying of the Commons, amongst others.

Learning outcomes
By the end of the course, students will understand the struggles of IPLCs generally, but also through specific examples from around the world. They will have an understanding of the European context, and specifically of the Italian one. They will be able to apply this learning to cases from their home countries or regions.

Teaching and Evaluation methods
Teaching will be a mixture of classic teaching, discussion groups around key works, and a field visit to an Italian common in nearby Pre-Alps, and guest speakers who work with European commons.

Assessment
In this course, there will be these evaluations:

1. Evaluation 1: group work, where students apply Ostrom’s 8 rules to a common of their choice (validated by prof), and present this work orally in class with a powerpoint presentation, assessing its challenges and opportunities (30% of grade). April 23
2. Evaluation 2: Prepared debate "People vs. Columbus” (35% of grade). May 21
3. Exam: Presentation on a commons from the student’s country (validated by prof), dealing with: the way the community 1) cares for territory 2) defends their territory, and 3) issues related to the theft of territory (35% of grade).

Attendance: obligatory. If you cannot attend a class, please contact me via email to inform me prior to class, providing the reason.

Background: It is useful to have some notions of natural resources.

Overview of the Course

1_Introduction to territory

• Definitions, mapping, Indigenous peoples and local communities, commons, territories of life.
• Ostrom and Hardin
• Global frameworks: UNDRIP, UNDROP, ILO169
• Diverse ways of knowing and governing resources.

Week 1

Introduction, definitions of commons, IPLC

Website exploration

Territory of Life global report: https://report.territoriesoflife.org/

2024 European Commons narratives: https://ruralcommons.eu/narratives/

Ostrom and Hardin, Commons fish-pond game

Hardin, G. (1968). The tragedy of the commons. Science, 162, 1243–1248.

Ostrom, E., Burger, J., Field, C. B., Norgaard, R. B., & Policansky, D. (1999). Revisiting the Commons: Local lessons, global challenges. Science, 284, 278–282.

Week 2

Commoning

Kumar Nayak, Prateep. 2021. Making Commons Dynamic | Understanding Change

Through Commonisation. Routledge. Introduction/Conclusion

Social ecological systems, recognizing a commons

Cox et al. 2010. “Ecology and Society: A Review of Design Principles for Community-Based Natural Resource Management.” Ecology and Society 15 (4). https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-03704-150438.

Ostrom, E. 2009. “A General Framework for Analyzing Sustainability of Social-Ecological Systems.” Science 325:419–22.

Gatto, P., & Bogataj, N. (2015). Disturbances, robustness and adaptation in forest commons: Comparative insights from two cases in the Southeastern Alps. Forest Policy and Economics, 58, 56–64

2_Caring for territory

Week 3

Stewardship

Malo Larrea et al. 2024. “Transcending the Nature-Society Dichotomy: A Dialogue between the Sumak Kawsay and the Epistemology of Complexity.” Ecological Economics 216 (February): 108044.

Worrell, Richard, and Michael C. Appleby. 2000. “Stewardship of Natural Resources: Definition, Ethical and Practical Aspects.” Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 12(3):263–77

Care

De La Bellacasa, María Puig. 2017. Matters of Care: Speculative Ethics in More than Human Worlds. University of Minnesota Press. Introduction

Novello, E. (2017). 'The marshes would return': Veneto's land reclamation consortia between oral history and environmental history. Proposte e Ricerche, 78, 37–56.

Week 4

Relationality

Bawaka Country, Burarrwanga, L., Ganambarr, R., Ganambarr-Stubbs, M., Ganambarr, B., Maymuru, D., Lloyd, K., Suchet-Pearson, S., Wright, S., Daley, L., 2022. Caring as Country: Singing up sovereignties, in: The Routledge Handbook of Property, Law and Society. Routledge.

Sacredness

Kealiikanakaoleohaililani, Kekuhi, and Christian P. Giardina. 2016. “Embracing the Sacred: An Indigenous Framework for Tomorrow’s Sustainability Science.” Sustainability Science 11 (1): 57–67. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-015-0343-3.

Mustonen, Tero. 2026. “Hiisi.” In The Dictionary of Radical Alternatives.

https://dictionaryofradicalalternatives.org/Concepts:Hiisi/Tero_Mustonen.

Week 5

Transmission

Tsing, Anna Lowenhaupt. 2021. The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins. Princeton University Press. Satoyama Initiative pp. 257-264.

Muñoz-Pérez, J.J., G. Gómez-Pina, L. Fages, A. Bernabéu, I. Rodríguez, and B. Tejedor. 2007. “Selective Fishing Weires in the Gulf of Cadiz: The ‘Corrales.’” Far East Journal of Ocean Research 1 (1): 9–32.

Reciprocity and gratitude

Kimmerer, R. W. (2013). Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. Milkweed Editions. Strawberry & Allegiance Chapters

Special Feature: Examining human–nature relationships through the lens of reciprocity: insights from Indigenous and Local Knowledge: People and Nature: Vol 7, No 5

3_Stealing territory

• Colonisation by Europe and colonisation within Europe
• Capitalism, extractive industries and commons grabbing
• Protected area creation

Week 6

Colonisation

Barnett, S. (2016). Asterix and the Dream of Autochthony. In G. Kovacs & C. W. Marshall

(Eds.), Son of Classics and Comics. Classical presences. Oxford University Press

Goscinny and Uderzo. 1973. Asterix and the Mansions of the gods

Enclosures and commons-grabbing

Rivoal, Solène. 2021. “Enclosure within a Closed Sea? The Fisheries against the Commons in the Republic of Venice in the Eighteenth Century.” Journal for the History of Environment and Society 6(1):35–60. doi:10.1484/J.JHES.5.128579.

Haller, Tobias. 2022. “From Commons to Resilience Grabbing: Insights from Historically-Oriented Social Anthropological Research on African Peasants.” Continuity and Change 37 (1): 69–95. https://doi.org/10.1017/S026841602200011X

Week 7

Arctic extractivism

Greenland and the cold war of rare earths: https://labs.letemps.ch/interactive/2023/groenland/articles.php?url=au-groenland-la-guerre-froide-des-terres-rares

Trump's Greenland threats open old wounds for Inuit across Arctic: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/02/indigenous-views-trump-greenland-push-inuits-arctic

The view from the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC): https://www.inuitcircumpolar.com/news/a-changing-world-order-requires-indigenous-peoples-to-stand-firm/

VIU Plenary Workshop preparation: presenting 3 cases of the commons
VIU Plenary Workshop class presentation

Week 8

Degradation Narratives

Leach, Melissa, Robin Mearns, and International African Institute, eds. 2003. The Lie of the Land: Challenging Received Wisdom on the African Environment. Nachdr. African Issues. Currey. Introduction

Second nature, Fairhead and Leach https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgsRnGmI3UU

Evaluation 1: Class presentations on Ostrom’s rules and the commons

Co-curricular activity: Visit to a nearby common in the Pre-Alps, Regole di Alpago. Visit co-organised with Dr. Giacomo Pagot or Prof. Paola Gatto, University of Padova and the President of the Regole.

Reading: Policy brief on the Italian commons

4_Fighting for territory

• Recognition, environmental defenders
• Initiatives in Europe and the Arctic
• Initiatives in Africa, Asia and the Pacific: Hawaiian biocultural renewal
• Initiatives in the Americas: Amazon Sacred Headwaters Initiative, Saryaku case, Standing Rock pipeline protest

Week 9

Cultural Erasure

Elliott, Alicia. 2020. A Mind Spread out on the Ground. Melville House. Chapter On seeing and being seen (pp 28-36); Chapter: Sontag, In snapshots (pp.160-192)

Blog and website exploration: Matika Wilbur’s https://www.project562.com/#1

Environmental Defenders

Scheidel et al. (2020). Environmental conflicts and defenders: A global overview. Global Environmental Change, 63, 102104.

Global Atlas of Environmental Justice https://ejatlas.org/

The Morrill Act in the US and dispossession of Native Americans https://www.hcn.org/issues/52-4/indigenous-affairs-education-land-grab-universities/

Week 10

IPLC Research Collaborations

Pain et al. 2026. “Communicating Science from the Arctic: A Collaborative Protocol to Mitigate Harm.” Progress in Physical Geography: Earth and Environment 50 (1): 127–37.

Smith, Linda Tuhiwai. 2012. Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. Second edition. Zed. Chapter on Researching on Indigenous Lands

Transnational Advocacy

Couto et al. 2025. “Recognition of Commons and ICCAs—Territories of Life in Europe: Assessing Twelve Years of Initiatives in Spain.” Land 14 (8): 1623. https://doi.org/10.3390/land14081623.

Evine-Binet. 2023. “Territory of Life: The Story of Ibola Dja Bana Da Massaha, the Reserve of All Massaha Children.” Langscape 12: 34–39.

Massaha. 2026. “Community Biocultural Mapping Reveals Historical Occupation and Enables Defense of African Rainforests.” Ambio

Story of Massaha community defense from a logging company: https://youtu.be/YaVMeOj6n9k?si=VGMDYnnivZuxHpbz

Challenges and Opportunities for Transnational Advocacy. International Studies Review (2025)

Week 11

Governance Vitality

Borrini-Feyerabend, Grazia. 2024. Territories of Life: Exploring Vitality of Governance for Conserved and Protected Areas. ICCA Consortium. https://doi.org/10.70841/VY54762. Pp. 96-141.

IPLC Legal Cases: Saryaku, Nunavut, Australia, Italy-Slovenia

Dahl, Jens, and Jack Hicks, eds. 2000. Nunavut - Inuit Regain Control of Their Lands and Their Lives. IWIGIA Document 102. International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs.

Amazonía 2041: A Vision from the Future:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiJLqcIV7kE

Šmid Hribar, M. (2025) “Ten years after the new Agrarian Communities Act: The status of agrarian communities in Upper Carniola,” Geografski vestnik, 97(1)

Week 12

Sami history and defense. Speaker: Vibeke Persen, Ca’Foscari University

Evaluation 2: The People vs. Columbus debate

Course duration: 40 hours of tuition
Credits equivalence: 6 ECTS

Last updated: June 11, 2026