Too Much of a Good Thing? A Governing Knowledge Commons Review of Abundance in Context

Authors

Michael J. Madison, University of PIttsburgh School of LawFollow
Brett M. Frischmann, Villanova University School of LawFollow
Madelyn Sanfilippo, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign School of Information Science; CITP, PrincetonFollow
Katherine J. Strandburg, New York University School of LawFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-2022

Abstract

The economics of abundance, along with the sociology of abundance, the law of abundance, and so forth, should be re-framed, linked, and situated in a common context for empirical rather than conceptual research. Abundance may seem to be a new, big thing, between anxiety over information overload, Big Data, and related technological disruptions. But scholars know that abundance is an ancient phenomenon, which only seemed to disappear as twentieth century social science focused on scarcity instead. Restoring the study of abundance, and figuring out how to solve the problems that abundance might create, means shedding disciplinary blinders and going back to basics. How does abundance, in various forms, create or alleviate social problems? We explain and illustrate how the Governing Knowledge Commons (GKC) framework provides a useful research tool to generate and test hypotheses about abundance in various economic, social, cultural, and legal settings.

Recommended Citation

Michael J. Madison, Brett M. Frischmann, Madelyn Sanfilippo & Katherine J. Strandburg, Too Much of a Good Thing? A Governing Knowledge Commons Review of Abundance in Context, 7 Frontiers in Research Metrics and Analytics Art. 959505 (2022).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.pitt.edu/fac_articles/535