Silke Helfrich is a writer and commons advocate who has been involved in
the field of development politics since the mid-1990s. She was the
Director of the Heinrich Böll Foundation from 1996 to 1998. As Director
of the foundation’s regional office in Mexico City from 1999 to 2007,
she focused on globalization, gender and human rights. Helfrich engages
with activists, academics, business people and politicians, especially
in the Green Party, to explain the strategic value of talking about the
commons. She travels throughout Europe meeting with leading theorists of
the commons and frontline activists. She works with academics and
groups such as the International Association for the Study of Commons.

She has developed international reputation through her German-speaking CommonsBlog and as the editor of Who Owns the World? The Rediscovery of the Commons, a
2008 anthology of essays about the commons featuring authors such as
Elinor Ostrom, Richard Stallman, Sunita Narain, Ulrich Steinvorth, Peter
Barnes, Oliver Moldenhauer and Pat Mooney.