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Our commons: Political ideas for a new Europe

2020-11-12T22:40:01+01:00Tags: , , , |

This publication explores new politics in Europe and describes the commons in different spheres of society, economy and politics.  The book is divided into seven thematic sections. Most sections have a theoretical position and a practical case study. All sections feature influential thinkers whose voices we want to amplify. This book is comprised of the insights of more than 20 writers, activists and pioneers, standing on the shoulders of hundreds more.

Heritage as common(s). Common(s) as heritage

2020-11-12T01:00:33+01:00Tags: , , , |

In 2014 "the Urban Heritage Research Cluster as part of Critical Heritage Studies, University of Gothenburg, organized seven seminars under the heading: “Heritage as Common(s) – Commons as Heritage, or HAC-CAH. The seminars have brought us to places like Ground Zero in New York, a creek in Olympia, Café The Swan in Amsterdam, Ellis Creek Water Recycling Facility in Petaluma, St Ann´s Church in Manchester, Central Park in New York, the Old city of Jerusalem, Stortorget in Malmö, the Al-Qaryon Square in Nablus, and Gezi Park in Istanbul. We have probed the notion of friendship, scrutinized the paradigm shifts from reproduction to production, explored the tension between top-down and bottom-up heritage. We have enjoyed the potential of biological commons and have looked into the different tempi and temporalities of commoning and heritage works. The seminar series has originated and evolved along the path we set up for the Urban Heritage Research Cluster in the start: “the city as an interface of different temporalities – i.e. past events, dreams for the future and contemporary constraints – and heritage as intermingled in many different urban realities and entangled in issues of aesthetics, ethics, space and power…”."

Worldwide mobilizations: Class struggles and urban commoning

2020-11-12T01:01:51+01:00Tags: , , |

The past decades have seen significant urban insurrections worldwide, and this volume analyzes some of them from an anthropological perspective; it argues that transformations of urban class relationships must be approached in a way that is both globally informed and deeply embedded in local and popular histories, and contends that every case of urban mobilization should be understood against its precise context in the global capitalist transformation. The book examines cases of mobilization across the globe, and employs a Marxian class framework, open to the diverse and multi-scalar dynamics of urban politics, especially struggles for spatial justice.

Performing the common city: On the crossroads of arts, politics and public life

2020-11-12T01:06:24+01:00Tags: , , , |

Pascal Gielen, art theoretician from Belgium, writes about the contemporary city, its shift from the space for the bourgeois class to the current trend of privatisation of public spaces and the role of arts in these processes. His analysis is based on theories and practices of Haussmann, Michel de Certeau, Chantal Mouffe, Saskia Sassen and others, while going through different conceptions of the city  as the common space: from Haussmann's urban structure in 18th century to Florida's creative city to the common city.

Spaces of commoning: Urban commons in the ex-Yu region

2020-11-12T01:10:14+01:00Tags: , , , |

The book is a collection of different texts and case studies from the countries of the Western Balkans that have been facing dramatic social, political and economic changes along with the so called transition since the beginning of 1990s. The present texts contextualise the concept of the commons through the practices of various actors, initiatives and organisations in Serbia, Kosovo and Montenegro, while taking a political and critical view on the concept of the commons and discussing its capacities as an alternative to neoliberalism. It is meant to showcase practices that encourage narratives and practices of resistance, transformation and promising a possible change.

Funding Cooperative City: Community Finance and the Economy of Civic Spaces

2018-06-15T15:12:34+01:00Tags: , , , |

Situated in the post-welfare transition of European societies within the context defined by austerity measures, unemployment, the financialisation of real estate stocks and the gradual withdrawal of public administrations from social services, this book aims at highlighting the importance of self-organised, locally rooted, inclusive and resilient community networks and civic spaces.

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