Tragedy of the Commons

Learn about the Tragedy of the Commons with iMinds insightful knowledge series.


The Tragedy of the Commons is a situation in which a jointly-owned resource is overused or destroyed because each person takes more than they would if the resource was privately owned. With each individual acting independently, the combined pressure on the resource exceeds what is in the interests of the community as a whole. The term was coined in 1967 by Garrett Hardin, a biologist from the University of California, in a famous article in the journal Science.

According to Hardin, there are some kinds of problems which society cannot resolve through technology, but which instead require a wholesale change in morality and behavior - what we might now call a cultural shift.

 

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