A town as the common good – social and economic perspective

Abstract

A town may be considered to create a system of common resources,
providing living space, jobs and other factors in life quality for its dwellers.
Fair and efficient management of these resources requires a specific type of
management. According to the findings of E. Ostrom et al., the description
of the urban system goes beyond the dichotomy between market and public
goods; and the dichotomy between market mechanisms and the public sector
and their unreliability does not make it possible to provide optimal effects.
This mainly results from a specific character of the goods themselves, as well
as a town as a complex system with strong external effects. This applies to
the character of urban land management in particular. The current paper
proposes the analysis of urban space as common pool resources (CPR).
The barriers and potential failures to implement Ostrom’s theory to urban
management have been presented, as well as the potential for choosing this
theory as an alternative both to commercialization and centralization. The
importance of the role of local self-government in negotiating, monitoring
and supervising the rules of CPR’s use has also been described.