Abstract
Whose common future: reclaiming the commons describes how one of the main forces underlying evictions in both urban and rural areas is the enclosure of land and other resources which had previously been managed by local communities. This enclosure not only destroys homes, settlements and (in many instances) livelihoods but also undermines the institutions and cultural pattern that protected "common properties". The paper argues that people and their commumnity organizations must reclaim the right to use, maintain and control local resources as a precondition for sustainable development.