Part of a series on |
Economic systems |
---|
Major types
|
Collective ownership is the ownership of property by all members of a group.[1][2] The breadth or narrowness of the group can range from a whole society to a set of coworkers in a particular enterprise (such as one collective farm). In the latter (narrower) sense the term is distinguished from common ownership and the commons, which implies open-access, the holding of assets in common, and the negation of ownership as such.
Collective ownership of the means of production is the defining characteristic of socialism,[3] where "collective ownership" can refer to society-wide ownership or to cooperative ownership by an organization's members. When contrasted with public ownership, "collective ownership" commonly refers to group ownership (such as a producer cooperative).[4]