rifkin in Dockray 2013
nly evolved and become ubiquitous over the last three decades as software began
being distributed digitally through networks rather than as physical objects in stores. Such
contradictions are symptoms of the shift in property regimes, or what Jeremy Rifkin called “the age
of access.” He writes that “property continues to exist but is far less likely to be exchanged in
markets. Instead, suppliers hold on to property in the new economy and lease, rent, or charge an
admission fee, subscription, or membership dues for its short-term use.”
Thinking again of books, Rifkin’s description gives the image of a paid library emerging as the
synthesis of the public library and the marketplace for commodity exchange. Considering how, on
the one side, traditional public libraries are having their collections deaccessioned, h
rifkin in Stalder 2018
ividual people and
households.[^96^](#c3-note-0096){#c3-note-0096a} The latter, as is
typical of commons, function simultaneously as producers and consumers.
It is not a coincidence that commons have begun to infiltrate the energy
sector. As Jeremy Rifkin has remarked:[]{#Page_171 type="pagebreak"
title="171"}
::: {.extract}
The generation that grew up on the Communication Internet and that takes
for granted its right to create value in distributed, collaborative,
peer-to-peer virtual commons has lit
the world\'s giant
energy, power, and utility companies, which they blame, in part, for the
high price of energy, a declining economy and looming environmental
crisis.[^97^](#c3-note-0097){#c3-note-0097a}
:::
It is not necessary to see in this, as Rifkin and a few others have
done, the ineluctable demise of
capitalism.[^98^](#c3-note-0098){#c3-note-0098a} Yet, like the influence
of post-democratic institutions over social mass media and beyond, the
commons are also shaping new expectations about poss
Index can be found at: \<[do-index.org](http://do-index.org)\>.
[96](#c3-note-0096a){#c3-note-0096} Tildy Bayar, "Community Wind
Arrives Stateside," *Renewable Energy World* (July 5, 2012), online.
[97](#c3-note-0097a){#c3-note-0097} Jeremy Rifkin, *The Zero Marginal
Cost Society: The Internet of Things, the Collaborative Commons and the
Eclipse of Capitalism* (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), p. 217.
[98](#c3-note-0098a){#c3-note-0098} See, for instance, Ludger
Eversmann, *Post-Kapita
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