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Pelican Books #44
The Blue Commons: Rescuing the Economy of the Sea
An exposé of the plunder of the world's oceans, and the devastating economic and environmental impact this is having across the globe
The sea provides more than half the oxygen we breathe, food for billions of people and livelihoods for hundreds of millions.
But giant corporations are plundering the world's oceans, aided by global finance and complicit states, following the neoliberal maxim of Blue Growth.
The situation is rampant exploitation and corruption now drive all aspects of the ocean economy, destroying communities, intensifying inequalities, and driving fish populations and other ocean life towards extinction.
The Blue Commons is an urgent call for change, from a campaigning economist responsible for some of the most innovative solutions to inequality of recent times. From large nations bullying smaller nations into giving up eco-friendly fishing policies to the profiteering by the Crown Estate in commandeering much of the British seabed, the scale of the global problem is synthesized here for the first time, as well as a toolkit for all of us to rise up and tackle it.
The oceans have been left out of calls for a Green New Deal but must be at the center of the fight against climate change. How do we do it? By building a Blue Commons a transformative worldview and new set of proposals that prioritize the historic rights of local communities, the wellbeing of all people and, with it, the health of our oceans.
'A landmark book... The Blue Commons is at once a brilliant synthesis, a searing analysis, and an inspiring call to action.' - David Bollier, author, Think Like a Commoner
'With remarkable erudition, passion and lyricism, Guy Standing commands the reader to wake up to the threat posed by rentier capitalism's violent policies for extraction, exploitation and depletion of that which is both common to us all, but also vital to our the sea and all within it.' - Ann Pettifor, author, The Case for the Green New Deal
'This is a powerful, visionary book - essential reading for all who yearn for a better world.' - Jason Hickel, author, The Divide
The sea provides more than half the oxygen we breathe, food for billions of people and livelihoods for hundreds of millions.
But giant corporations are plundering the world's oceans, aided by global finance and complicit states, following the neoliberal maxim of Blue Growth.
The situation is rampant exploitation and corruption now drive all aspects of the ocean economy, destroying communities, intensifying inequalities, and driving fish populations and other ocean life towards extinction.
The Blue Commons is an urgent call for change, from a campaigning economist responsible for some of the most innovative solutions to inequality of recent times. From large nations bullying smaller nations into giving up eco-friendly fishing policies to the profiteering by the Crown Estate in commandeering much of the British seabed, the scale of the global problem is synthesized here for the first time, as well as a toolkit for all of us to rise up and tackle it.
The oceans have been left out of calls for a Green New Deal but must be at the center of the fight against climate change. How do we do it? By building a Blue Commons a transformative worldview and new set of proposals that prioritize the historic rights of local communities, the wellbeing of all people and, with it, the health of our oceans.
'A landmark book... The Blue Commons is at once a brilliant synthesis, a searing analysis, and an inspiring call to action.' - David Bollier, author, Think Like a Commoner
'With remarkable erudition, passion and lyricism, Guy Standing commands the reader to wake up to the threat posed by rentier capitalism's violent policies for extraction, exploitation and depletion of that which is both common to us all, but also vital to our the sea and all within it.' - Ann Pettifor, author, The Case for the Green New Deal
'This is a powerful, visionary book - essential reading for all who yearn for a better world.' - Jason Hickel, author, The Divide
592 pages, Paperback
First published July 7, 2022
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493 people want to read
About the author
Guy Standing
59 books174 followersGuy Standing is a British professor of Development Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, and co-founder of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN).
Standing has written widely in the areas of labour economics, labour market policy, unemployment, labour market flexibility, structural adjustment policies and social protection. His recent work has concerned the emerging precariat class and the need to move towards unconditional basic income and deliberative democracy.
Standing has written widely in the areas of labour economics, labour market policy, unemployment, labour market flexibility, structural adjustment policies and social protection. His recent work has concerned the emerging precariat class and the need to move towards unconditional basic income and deliberative democracy.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
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March 6, 2023an excellent case study into the kind of thinking that needs to be done about the convergence of the economy and the environment. It also an excellent expose and concentration of the crimes perpetrated on the oceans in the name of GDP and profit.
but i wish to go further -though not without precedent: private property is the crime, and it's owners are the criminals. anything short of its abolition will be unable to sustain us, let alone save us. this book strides with one leg, detailing the devouring of the ocean with scant mercy for the monsters who would pursue the last fish to the ends of the earth and sell it for $50000 dollars to the japanese black market. but it also limps, one leg stuck trailing the digesting entrails of finance, property and law; the impoverished vocabulary of reform and regulation.
but i wish to go further -though not without precedent: private property is the crime, and it's owners are the criminals. anything short of its abolition will be unable to sustain us, let alone save us. this book strides with one leg, detailing the devouring of the ocean with scant mercy for the monsters who would pursue the last fish to the ends of the earth and sell it for $50000 dollars to the japanese black market. but it also limps, one leg stuck trailing the digesting entrails of finance, property and law; the impoverished vocabulary of reform and regulation.
December 4, 2022
Not an easy read, the situation of marine biodiversity loss is heart-wrenching. The author points out - through 500 pages - why neoliberal mechanisms (financialization, privatization etc.) can never be solutions to sustainability (a hard pill for me to swallow, personally).
He instead proposes the notion of blue commons (commoning, to common) to mitigate marine biodiversity loss, with a guideline on small-scale fishery resistance and Blue common capital fund (yes, still a financial instrument) but for the blue commonwealth (and that of communities and beings whose lives depend on the ocean).
He instead proposes the notion of blue commons (commoning, to common) to mitigate marine biodiversity loss, with a guideline on small-scale fishery resistance and Blue common capital fund (yes, still a financial instrument) but for the blue commonwealth (and that of communities and beings whose lives depend on the ocean).
February 15, 2026
3.5 stars.
This is a detailed overview of the state of our oceans and many of the factors driving their destruction. Its main message is that marine and freshwater environments need to be resources held in common for the benefit of human and nonhuman life equally. Standing examines various ways this could be achieved by financial instruments established by progressive governments in partnership with local stakeholders - the “commoners”. The commoners are the communities who live from marine or freshwater environments and have an interest in maintaining those ecosystems in healthy, productive ways.
There's a great deal of useful information and sources here, so readers could use it to research the subject more widely. There’s a very useful section on deep ocean mining and the history of UNCLOS and the useless International Seabed Authority for instance. But there are some limitations to the wider analysis. Standing blames the British government, not the EU for the state of commercial fishing from Britain. Of course sucessive British governments are responsible because they signed up to the various forms of the European economic community that created the Common Fisheries Policy. These policies concentrated capital to maximise profit and created fewer, more destructive boats that helped create the disastrous state of fishing for 100,000s of low impact fishers and their communities. But that can’t be separated as British government policy the EU and the Common Fisheries Policy that member states signed up to.
Standing doesn't talk about waste either, yet it is one of the biggest problems with industrial fishing. It’s more profitable to waste around a third of all fish caught than to keep it fit to eat by investment in effective storage, processing and distribution facilities. When we’re talking about degrowth we need to emphasise how wasteful capitalism is and that prioritising profit inevitably means people go hungry not because there isn’t enough food but because they cannot afford to access available food, they are simply too poor.
The other problem with the book, I feel, is that the processes Standing is advocating are becoming increasingly unrealistic under capitalism. The destabilisation of the world has speeded up so much since this was published in 2022 that it feels dated. The intensification of imperialist rivalries; Russia's war on Ukraine, Israel's war on Palestinians, Trump’s dismantling of laws and infrastructure to ameliorate the worst effects of climate change, Trump's attack on Venezuela, his threats to Greenland, Canada, general warmongering against China, China threatening Taiwan and so on. All of this has made it more likely we'll get more wars and environmental disasters. So it's really difficult to see how within capitalism, the blue funds and piecemeal reforms supported by “progressive states” will work.
The alternative is challenging the logic of capitalism which this doesn’t do. It may seem unrelated but when thousands of Americans face down ICE they show a glimpse of the power that could turn the world on its head and overthrow the power of corporations and their friends in governments. That’s what we need to build on to save our oceans because whatever capitalists say, they will only stop destroying our environments when it is no longer profitable to do so.
This is a detailed overview of the state of our oceans and many of the factors driving their destruction. Its main message is that marine and freshwater environments need to be resources held in common for the benefit of human and nonhuman life equally. Standing examines various ways this could be achieved by financial instruments established by progressive governments in partnership with local stakeholders - the “commoners”. The commoners are the communities who live from marine or freshwater environments and have an interest in maintaining those ecosystems in healthy, productive ways.
There's a great deal of useful information and sources here, so readers could use it to research the subject more widely. There’s a very useful section on deep ocean mining and the history of UNCLOS and the useless International Seabed Authority for instance. But there are some limitations to the wider analysis. Standing blames the British government, not the EU for the state of commercial fishing from Britain. Of course sucessive British governments are responsible because they signed up to the various forms of the European economic community that created the Common Fisheries Policy. These policies concentrated capital to maximise profit and created fewer, more destructive boats that helped create the disastrous state of fishing for 100,000s of low impact fishers and their communities. But that can’t be separated as British government policy the EU and the Common Fisheries Policy that member states signed up to.
Standing doesn't talk about waste either, yet it is one of the biggest problems with industrial fishing. It’s more profitable to waste around a third of all fish caught than to keep it fit to eat by investment in effective storage, processing and distribution facilities. When we’re talking about degrowth we need to emphasise how wasteful capitalism is and that prioritising profit inevitably means people go hungry not because there isn’t enough food but because they cannot afford to access available food, they are simply too poor.
The other problem with the book, I feel, is that the processes Standing is advocating are becoming increasingly unrealistic under capitalism. The destabilisation of the world has speeded up so much since this was published in 2022 that it feels dated. The intensification of imperialist rivalries; Russia's war on Ukraine, Israel's war on Palestinians, Trump’s dismantling of laws and infrastructure to ameliorate the worst effects of climate change, Trump's attack on Venezuela, his threats to Greenland, Canada, general warmongering against China, China threatening Taiwan and so on. All of this has made it more likely we'll get more wars and environmental disasters. So it's really difficult to see how within capitalism, the blue funds and piecemeal reforms supported by “progressive states” will work.
The alternative is challenging the logic of capitalism which this doesn’t do. It may seem unrelated but when thousands of Americans face down ICE they show a glimpse of the power that could turn the world on its head and overthrow the power of corporations and their friends in governments. That’s what we need to build on to save our oceans because whatever capitalists say, they will only stop destroying our environments when it is no longer profitable to do so.
December 17, 2023
Impressed by the breadth of Standing’s research into a wide range of problems related to the “economy” of the sea. I particularly liked the concept of the blue commons and the author's systemic critique of global ocean governance, as well as his critical approach to law/ what's legal vs. illegal. The author presents a comprehensive critique, and at the same time puts forward a very specific proposal for rethinking our current approach in a more holistic way.
Some of the sources seemed a little bit dated, but I guess that reflects the long-term nature of the project and the multiple years the author worked on this book. Overall, I thought this was extremely well written. It introduces a wide scope of interrelated issues. As I am personally still only beginning to better understand the interconnectedness of the oceans with basically everything else, I appreciated that this book was so accessible also to laypersons. Much to think about!
Some of the sources seemed a little bit dated, but I guess that reflects the long-term nature of the project and the multiple years the author worked on this book. Overall, I thought this was extremely well written. It introduces a wide scope of interrelated issues. As I am personally still only beginning to better understand the interconnectedness of the oceans with basically everything else, I appreciated that this book was so accessible also to laypersons. Much to think about!
May 20, 2024
Although a very interesting read and reflection the author sometimes clearly biased and frustrated tone takes away from its core message: we need to profoundly rethink our approach to the blue commons. Probably could have been said in half the pages with a similar result. Sometimes felt repetitive with a lot of examples against companies and governments.
August 12, 2025
I was hoping to read a deep delving work about ocean economy. Not everything about degrowth and especially environment protection is bad, but this one is unfortunately a communist manifesto with barely much scientific evidence but much ideology.
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