
Governing Commons Through Uncertainty: Towards a Link Between Commons and Pastoralist Territories of Life
By: Ali Razmkhah and Nina Aminzadeh Goharrizi
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/ijc.1623 | Journal eISSN: 1875-0281
Language: English
Page range: 252 - 267
Submitted on: Jul 17, 2025
Accepted on: May 16, 2026
Published on: Jul 29, 2026
Published by: Ubiquity Press
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Keywords:
© 2026 Ali Razmkhah, Nina Aminzadeh Goharrizi, published by Ubiquity Press
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.