Economies, like ecosystems, live and die. Firms rise, accumulate resources, compete, and eventually collapse. In capitalist economies, when firms “die,” their accumulated knowledge, infrastructure, and social coordination often rot away—liquidated, privatized, or locked behind intellectual property walls. This resembles an ecosystem where fallen trees never decompose, where nutrients are trapped in unusable form, leading to stagnation and scarcity.
But ecosystems thrive precisely because death is followed by composting. Fallen matter is recycled into fertile ground for new growth. In this essay, we argue that commons-based peer production (CBPP)—the collaborative creation of digital and material goods outside market logics—functions more like an ecosystem’s forest floor than capitalism’s landfill. By reducing resource misallocation, improving recycling of knowledge and materials, and minimizing losses from organizational “death,” CBPP offers a regenerative economic logic better suited to a resource-constrained planet.
