The tragedy of the commons is a situation in which individuals acting independently and rationally according to their own interests behave contrary to the best interests of a community by depleting some common resource. The hypothesis raised by the "tragedy of the commons" states that free access to and unrestricted demand for a finite resource ends up structurally damning the resource on account of its overexploitation. This concept was originally based on an essay written by the mathematician and economist William Forster Lloyd on communal land tenure in medieval villages, although it was popularised by the ecologist Garrett Hardin in his essay "The Tragedy of the Commons", published in 1968 in Science journal.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/162/3859/1243

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  Concepts guiding the cycles The Tragedy of the Commons Today:

  The management of common goods and resources is constantly the subject of debate about how and by whom it should be carried out, whether the best management is through a more active state, a market with greater freedom or cooperation between individuals in a community. In order to clarify this issue, Garrett Hardin published in 1968 in Science magazine a study called "The Tragedy of the Commons", which assumes as a solution to the mismanagement of common and exhaustible resources only two alternatives: 1) State management or 2) market management. Hardin promoted discussions on exhaustible resources that proved to be pertinent to the areas of management as well as economics and public policy, among others. Between the 1980s and 1990s, the economist Elinor Östrom published her works on what she called the "Government of the Commons", a theory that brings an alternative to Garrett Hardin's and his solutions restricted to the State and the market, which would be the cooperation between individuals of a community in the management of common resources. With the purpose of stimulating a dialogue on these issues and discussing the role of society's actors in the preservation of common resources, the Research Group Uergs/CNPq Policies, Public Management and Development and the Environment and Sustainability Postgraduate Programme promote since 2018 cycles of lectures and debates "The Tragedy of the Commons Today". Throughout its 4 editions, the cycles have been incorporated more and more topics and fields of analysis, expanding their discussions beyond public policies, but always counting on their importance for sustainable development.

  The Tragedy of the Commons Today: Its Legacy in Public Policy Development (1st edition, 2018)

  Inaugurated on May 23, 2018, the first edition of the cycle of events had as its theme the legacy of the Tragedy of the Commons and the Government of the Commons in the development of public policies. Celebrating the 50th anniversary of Garret Hardin's publication, five meetings were held in the auditorium of the Uergs campus in Porto Alegre, which fostered discussions on the management of common goods and resources in the academic community with the principles present in the works of Hardin and Östrom and through approaches to regional development, urban space management, circular economy and geospatial intelligence.

  In the first cycle, it was found that sustainability is a subject relevant to many sectors and competent to all actors in society, State and private initiative. It was evaluated how the management concepts of the Tragedy of the Commons are present in many public policies and it was also found that Elinor Östrom's work provides important lessons for the elaboration of these policies, better meeting the demand of regional and global populations and encouraging a market sustainable. Finally, the circular economy emerged as an approach to be promoted to solve and minimize the socio-environmental problems currently faced due to its precepts for mitigating negative externalities generated by human activities.

  The Tragedy of the Commons Today: Tragedy of the Commons or Non-Commons? (2nd edition, 2019)

  Taking up the concepts of last year's event, the cycle of lectures and debates returns with its discussions focused on three more specific areas: solid waste management, urban mobility and technologies in the public sector. Composed of three meetings, one of which was held at the Fernando Ferrari Administrative Center – CAFF, the edition deepened the debate from the perspective of Circular Economy on the first two themes. Through it, it is possible to see how it comes to help public policies and the market (especially plastic) to reduce their negative impacts both on nature and on society, fostering innovation and promoting a cleaner production chain and forms of mobility. sustainable.

  The last meeting, on technologies in the public sector, discussed how information is also both a good and a common resource, as it reflects what is happening in real time in different fields and spheres of society, at the collective and individual level, thus becoming a tool and product relevant to everyone. This, together with the other themes of the events, evidenced even more how Hardin's theory is present in the most diverse areas and also how Elinor Östrom's studies are important for the study and elaboration of public policies, as it sheds light on one of the most important issues. currently important: cooperation and collaboration in the management of these resources and assets.

  The Tragedy of the Commons Today: Urban Tragedies and Sustainable Cities (3rd edition, 2020) and 1st Scientific Exhibition of Cities and Sustainability

  In 2020, the cycle of lectures and debates brought to the center of its discussions a topic that was already permeating its previous events, urban management policies. This year, due to the social isolation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the event was broadcast live entirely on the Grupo de Pesquisas Facebook page. There were 3 meetings that accumulated 10 thousand views, counting on the audience of its transmission and those who viewed the videos made available on the page.
 

  In this edition, we sought to show how the municipal sphere is an extremely important field for socio-environmental and economic policies, since it is the closest sphere to the population and the territory under its management. The topics Urban Mobility and Solid Waste Management are discussed again, this time working under the spectrum of municipalities and their contributions to regional development, both as indicators and catalysts for this, along with the debate on Environmental Education as a key element for socio-environmental policies .

  Finally, the end of the 2020 cycle included the presentation of the 3 best rated works of the 1st Scientific Exhibition of Cities and Sustainability. The exhibition brought together studies in the format of expanded abstracts from various areas such as public administration, energy engineering, sociology, among others, for the publication of an e-book with 20 selected works and 8 more exclusive guest chapters on sustainable public policies. The e-book will be released at the 2nd event of the 4th Cycle of Lectures and Debates The Tragedy of the Commons Today, on June 25, 2021.

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  The Tragedy of the Commons Today (4th edition, 2021) and 2nd Scientific Exhibition of Cities and Sustainability
 

Continuing with the 2021 formula, the 4th cycle of debates and the 2nd scientific exhibition will focus on methods to encourage sustainability at the municipal level. Using the Tragedy of the Commons (Hardin) and the Government of the Commons (Östrom) as a theoretical basis, studies that prove increasingly relevant in the development of public policies, the extension action aims to promote the discussion of how the negative impacts of human activity in the environment can be mitigated without compromising economic and human development, especially in urban centers.

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