Extitutions, commons and blockchain

Current governance models face limitations when addressing today's complex challenges, such as climate change, aging populations, and technological disruptions like AI. These limitations are particularly troubling as nation-states struggle to serve as effective counterweights to powerful economic actors. Meanwhile, corporations develop proprietary technological systems that further marginalize commons-based alternatives. The resulting governance landscape is fundamentally asymmetric, with power concentrated in ways that undermine collective decision-making and public welfare. Recent developments in the United States illustrate this imbalance, where concentrated private interests increasingly influence democratic processes and geopolitical stability in pursuit of profit maximization, often with minimal consideration for human rights, environmental sustainability, or intergenerational equity. Our symposium examines these critical tensions at a time when the three main coordination frameworks—(i) nation states, (ii) market-based corporations, and (iii) commons-based models—strain under contemporary pressures. Each faces constraints when applied at scale, particularly when addressing transnational challenges that require unprecedented cooperation. This symposium aims to explore the potential hybridization of these approaches: Under what conditions can they be combined? What are their limitations? What real-world models demonstrate success or failure?