{
  "id": "tragedy-of-the-commons.collective",
  "term": "tragedy of the commons",
  "sense": "collective",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "review",
  "level": 15,
  "domain": "commons",
  "style": "folk",
  "definition": "a drift in a parameter that narrows the window of a shared thing because no single model includes the whole, and so no maintenance acts on the whole",
  "folk_gloss": "when everyone acting in their own interest ruins a shared resource",
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "drift.aimless",
      "window.range",
      "narrow.spatial",
      "model.representation",
      "maintenance.upkeep"
    ],
    "interaction": "individual decisions that ignore shared limits",
    "novel_properties": [
      "uncoordinated depletion",
      "unowned consequence"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [],
  "relations": [],
  "used_by": [],
  "forms": [
    "tragedy of the commons"
  ],
  "closed": true,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "phrases:qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b-2507",
    "date": "2026-07-29",
    "confidence": 0.7,
    "sources": [
      "folk phrase — collective outcome nobody chose"
    ]
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-tragedy-of-the-commons.collective"
}