The ambiguous nature of the commons shifting meanings between archives and field evidences

The essay interweaves around the theme of the ambiguity of the commons different levels and methods of research, using multiple disciplines and analytical tools. The reflection focuses on a case study from the Ligurian Apennines, where two communities were engaged in a centuries-old dispute over ownership of collective resources. The authors examine clues to changes in the environmental resource management practices of woodlands and pastures, focusing especially on those concerning charcoal and hay production on common lands. The aim is to identify changes in access rights, and thus, in the organisation of local communities, by scrutinising relations between the social actors and their environmental resources, in order to correlate the material evidence of the occupation, appropriation and use of common lands (fences, charcoal kilns, wetlands, etc.) to variations in local ownership and use practices, including those resulting from administrative reforms introduced by the central authorities