Summary
A federated commons is a network of self-governing commons – shared resources run by the people who use them – that coordinate by choice, with no central authority. Each stays small and rooted in its place; the links between them carry what none could do alone. The phrase circulates in the commons movement and we haven’t found a single originator. Writing for Growing the Commons in 2025, Michel Rauchs calls federation “the primary strategy by which commons can scale without losing their core character”.
His examples include housing co-ops forming regional syndicates, community-supported farms joining producer networks, and the federated social network Mastodon. One image for it: forest, not skyscraper.
Rationale
Federation suggests how the contexts we care about might link up without a centre. Part 2 counts “a commoning initiative” among them; Part 1 hopes for “webs of mutually beneficial coordination” in place of fragmentation.