Abstract

Professor John Urry, Lancaster University

Offshoring as a way of undermining the Commons?

Offshoring has become a pervasive feature of contemporary societies, posing huge challenges both for governments and citizens. Elements of contemporary offshoring come in diverse forms – in work, finance, pleasure, waste, emissions, energy, security, and taxation – but each generates new patterns of power, reducing responsibilities for a privileged and powerful ‘offshore class,’ and undermining the possibilities of democratic governance. The offshore secret worlds that result directly or indirectly undermine various kinds of ‘commons’. But can offshoring of these commons, and the dark side of globalization, be resisted and reversed? John Urry explores the potential for ‘reshoring’ such commons, for strengthening democracy and for promoting low carbon futures.