This course is an introduction to the idea of "the commons" from a historical perspective, as well as an applied investigation into contemporary applications and projects like community land trusts and cooperatives. The course proceeds from the perspective that nature is social, the "environment" includes humans, and thus real sustainability requires reframing our ideas about "space" at all scales. The course proceeds with a *critical orientation to the history and practice of private property, and then zeroes in on a host of actually-existing (including some local metro-area) case studies as a way to ground our theoretical engagements. Examples of case studies will include a Black Electric Cooperative in the American South, a Worker-Owned Cooperative in Europe, and a Housing Coop/Land Trusts in the NYC/NJ area.