The common

Over the last three decades or so, radical scholarship has identified the continuousand ongoing enclosure of the commons as critical for the expansion of globalcapitalism (Caffentzis 2016; Federici 2004; Linebaugh 2008). Largely focusing oncapitalist apparatuses of dispossession and expropriation (Rossi 2013), this line ofinquiry has shed light on the colonising logic of neoliberal globalisation. Taking adifferent perspective, authors working within the autonomist-Marxist strand of“radical Italian thought” (Hardt and Virno 2006) have drawn attention to the pro-ductive dimension of what, using the singular form, they define “the common”and its role in the context of cognitive capitalism. In revisiting the concept of“the common”, this entry assesses its significance as an intellectual and politicalcategory, particularly against the backdrop of the current moment of politicalauthoritarianism and intensified racial, gendered and environmental violence.