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Centre for Commons Organising, Values Equalities and Resilience (COVER)

The centre aims to create a pioneering and global agenda for studying the theoretical and practical possibilities of how commons values based on principles of cooperation, collaboration, and open knowledge sharing can foster more egalitarian, inclusive, and participative 21st century economies, communities, and organisations

Part of Essex Business School

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We explore how cooperation, collaboration, and open knowledge sharing can radically transform organisations and society

Our research investigates how principles of cooperation, collaboration, and open knowledge sharing can foster more egalitarian, inclusive, and participative 21st-century economies, communities, technologies, and organisations.

The commons refers to the shared or public ownership of goods, resources, services, and knowledge.  Across the world, innovative commons ideas ranging from community land trusts to participatory budgeting to worker owned cooperatives are being used to address climate change and global inequality. This Centre for Commons Organising, Values Equalities and Resilience (COVER) studies different theories for creating, managing, and promoting the commons – asking important questions how the commons can improve goods and services, be sustainably financed, and effectively marketed to populations and policy-makers.

Our research clusters

Critical Studies in AI and Digitalisation (CSAID)

Led by Professor Phoebe Moore, CSAID focuses on critically assessing the socio-political implications of emerging digital technologies, AI governance, and labour futures.

Find out more about our research projects on: Shared Futures; Digitalisation and Workers’ Rights; Community Business; AI Policy Observatory for the World of Work.

Democracy, Rights, and the Commons (DRC)

The cluster explores how commons-based governance can be a pathway to realising universal rights and reinvigorating participatory democracy.

Find out more about our research projects on: Plebeian Rights; Organise NOW.

Commons Economy, Work, and Transitions (CEWT)

The cluster focuses on historical and emergent models of post-capitalist transformation with a view to designing practical blueprints for systemic change. This encompasses a wide range of topics such as housing, health, food, energy and work; including how we imagine and organise labour, livelihood, and social reproduction beyond capitalism.

Find out more about our research projects on: Energy Commons; Green Transitions.

Creative Commons and Design (CCD)

The cluster explores how arts, culture, and design practices contribute to commons-based systems and post-capitalist imaginaries. It focuses on the role of creative industries in reshaping value, ownership, and participation — from open-access cultural production and commons-based licensing to participatory urban design and storytelling for systemic change.

The stream supports collaborations with artists, curators, and cultural institutions, and host exhibitions, workshops, and design labs.

Find out more about our research projects on: Minor Compositions.

Decolonising and Queering the Commons (DQC)

The cluster explores how the commons can serve as a catalyst for confronting and transforming colonial, heteronormative, and exclusionary social systems. Drawing on queer theory, Indigenous epistemologies, and decolonial thought, it investigates how commons-based approaches can foster radically inclusive, pluralistic, and liberatory alternatives.

This stream also engages with decolonial land struggles, gendered care economies, and the reimagining of kinship, ownership, and belonging through queer and decolonial commons frameworks.

Find out more about our research projects on: Queer spaces and Community Ownership.

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Commons Development and Transformation

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Commons Technology

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Digitalisation, Work and the Commons

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Commons Design and Organisation

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Commons Health and Services

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Commons Education

Our research

Learn more about research from COVER

Read our publications, discover our projects and view our latest research
Our impact and events

Discover how and where research from COVER is featured

Learn more about our events, view our work in the media and discover more about our education
Our members

Meet the members of COVER

View our list of international collaborators and visit their academic staff profiles
"The vision of the centre is to explore the theoretical and practical possibilities of how common ownership and organising based on values of cooperation, collaboration, and open knowledge sharing can foster more egalitarian, inclusive and participative 21st-century economies, communities, and organisations."
Professor Bloom Co-director, centre for commons, organising, values equalities and resilience
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Discover our research projects

Want to learn more about the very latest research projects currently being undertaken by our members? Visit our projects and learn more about the exciting work taking place within the Centre for Commons Organising, Values Equalities and Resilience.

Discover our research projects
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Contact us
Centre for Commons Organising Values Equalities and Resilience (COVER) Co-Directors:
Peter Bloom, Phoebe Moore, and Stevphen Shukaitis
Essex Business School University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, Essex
CO4 3SQ
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  • +44 (0) 1206 873333
  • University of Essex
  • Wivenhoe Park
  • Colchester CO4 3SQ

 

 

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