Dear all,

I invite everyone to consider participating in the 14th Global Conference of the International Association for the Study of the Commons meeting, which will be held on Mount Fuji on 3-7 June 2013. The season for submitting proposals for complete panels, individual papers, posters, videos, and even round tables is now on, until
30 September 2012.

It would be great to get a good loading of Japan papers into the meeting, so I encourage you all to think about coming, submit abstracts, organize panels, and advertise the conference widely on your own networks.

COMMONERS AND THE CHANGING COMMONS: LIVELIHOODS, ENVIRONMENTAL SECURITY, AND SHARED KNOWLEDGE

This is the IASC's first meeting ON a commons and the first one to be sponsored BY commoners -- who are in a position to do this because they held on to their commons through 150 years of struggle against the Japanese government, greatly to their eventual advantage. The victorious commoners claim ownership of the north side of Mount Fuji (Kitafuji). Their federation of commons-owner-groups is hosting the meeting. Mount Fuji is easily reached by express trains and buses from either of Tokyo's international airports. Although Mount Fuji is a prime tourist destination, we have timed the conference for a week that is both Mount Fuji's sunniest week of the year and still outside of peak tourism season, so accommodations can be found that are as low as Y3000/night with shared bathrooms. This is your chance to visit a truly spectacular place (nominated as a World Heritage Site) with an indisputable intellectual justification for the trip. The conference itself will include workshops and study trips related to the Kitafuji commons, as well as a day of field trips to other locations to look at water, fisheries, irrigations, hot springs, and other agricultural commons.

I am hoping that the attached printable handout -- one sized and paginated for A4 paper, one for Letter sized paper (8.5x11) -- will be able to accompany this message, but if the attachments get stripped, please visit the conference web site at www.iasc2013.org to investigate. The attached (I hope) handouts will also be downloadable from the web site.

Margaret McKean
Political Science and Nicholas school of the Environment, Duke University

Kitafuji Conference Co-Chair, IASC