The Commons as a general concept can be difficult to understand, as it is not easily defined. David Bollier describes it as “durable, dynamic sets of social relationships for managing resources – all sorts of resources: digital, urban, natural, indigenous, rural, cultural, scientific…” An important characteristic of the commons is that there is no commons without communing, and this, as Bollier explains, is what sets it apart from a public good. In case of the acequia community, the parciantes are the commoners.

To read a short overview WHAT IS THE COMMONS and why it is important:

http://bollier.org/commons-short-and-sweet

In this overview, Bollier further states that the enclosure of the commons is one of the great unacknowledged problems of our time. This refers to many resources that are increasingly being commodified and commercialized, from classic small-scale commons focused on natural resources, to –recent– digital networks/information, and privatization of water on large scale.