The early part of the twenty-first century has seen an explosion of work on the commons and on cooperation, in particular in the networked economy. This work and the practices it examines offer core constructive alternatives to understanding human motivation, organization and production. In the teeth of growing inequality in many countries, built around policies derived from theories anchored in a thoroughgoing commitment to models based on self-interest, work on the commons and cooperation offer an alternative conception of why we do what we do, how we come together to be effective, and how we can produce, innovate, and create without following a narrow institutional path that begins with self-interest and ends with exploitation.