The first issue was published in April 2010, as part of an international symposium around the publication of Loïc Wacquant's book Punishing the Poor.

[9] On the tenth anniversary of the magazine, the editors announced that the 12th issue would be the last in print, and that in the future, Commons would work only in an online format.

In 2019, it launched the annual Feuerbach 11 conference that brings together researchers and activists to discuss Ukraine's socio-economic and political issues.

The editorial board included Marxists, anarchists, and supporters of other left-wing traditions, but at the same time, the magazine distanced itself from Soviet Marxism-Leninism and declared from the moment of its foundation that “there are no Stalinists among us and there will be none.”[16] The co-founders were guided by the ideas of Michael Burawoy about organic public sociology, and the publication's goal was to analyze social reality, not theoretical polemics between different left-wing traditions.

[20] Emily S. Channell-Justice, in her dissertation on the Ukrainian left's participation in the Revolution of Dignity, argued that the magazine "presented a space for leftist criticism of global issues and events, regularly organizing conferences in Kyiv.