Contribution short abstract:

Fragrant oil-bearing rose in Isparta is central for commoning discourses for local imaginations, for sharing common concerns and a future of sustainable value for the community. The commoning narratives nevertheless display tensions between rural growers-urban processors and local-global players.

Contribution long abstract:

Rosa Damascena (fragrant oil-bearing rose) is considered a local agricultural resource in Isparta, Türkiye. It is used for extracting the valuable rose oil, rose water and other rose products, essential for global and national cosmetics and health industries. The local firms compete with one another for buying most of the rose harvest from rose growers, yet at the same time worry about the global price of rose oil, that they will not be able to sell their produce. The local actors within this global chain of rose growers in Isparta to local companies processing rose oil have to common their valuation of the rose and rose oil, yet downplay the competition concerning the prices and harvest. This paper discusses how the local discourse tries to solve this tension between growth, price and value through narratives of commoning the value for the community, the future of Isparta’s rose and the need for sustaining the local wealth, ecology and rural population. It shows how various actors emphasise the common values and partly downplay the ecological degradation and competition for the harvest.