Housing as Commons: Housing Alternatives as Response to the Current Urban Crisis (In Common)

Part III In defence of the collective right to housing 11 Materializing the self-management: Tracking the commons in Yugoslav housing economy Jelica Jovanović 12 A Greek activist's reflections on the housing struggles and the movement against foreclosures in Athens Tonia Katerini 13 The power of public participation: Socio-economic impacts of urban development on the local commons in Egypt Mohamed Magdi Hagras 14 From social urbanism to strategies of collective action in Medellin Penny Travlou in conversation with Catalina Ortiz and Harry Smith 15 Housing policy as a form of urban governance: The Barbican Estate and the enclosure of the urban commons Ioanna Piniara Epilogue: Congregations: On the inhabitation of urban humans AbduMaliq Simone ## Index We planned this book before the recent COVID-19 pandemic and we feel very happy that it has now become a reality in spite of the huge problems we all had to face due to this global health crisis. We hoped that more opportunities for collective in-person work between the contributors would have been available, since the idea of exploring aspects of a potential commoning culture needs to be based on practices of knowledge commoning and the sharing of thoughts between those involved. Unfortunately, this did not become possible. We want to thank, however, all the contributors for their support, their enthusiasm and their work that often transcended the difficulties of this period. With most of them, we have collaborated in various occasions in the past, so, this collection is the mature result, we hope, of many intersecting research trajectories. We both like to thank our students as they have offered us very often interesting thoughts and critical appraisal of our research endeavours as well as of our theoretical work. Although we are affiliated to different academic environments, bridges between them have proven very productive and inspiring. We would also like to thank the editors of Bloomsbury for offering us the opportunity to publish this book. We are especially thankful to our editors Tomasz Hoskins and Nayiri Kendir for their support and understanding in these challenging times to publish our book. We are thankful to our proof reader Nivethitha Tamilselvan for her detailed editorial work on the manuscript. We are indebted to the invaluable support, constructive feedback and comments we have received by the Commons Series Editor, Professor Massimo de Angelis. His own work on the commons has inspired us and offered us the right space to publish this collection of in-depth studies on housing as commons. We would like to dedicate this book to all the communities, initiatives, groups and projects that our contributors have presented in their individual chapters. Their example of commoning practices is inspirational and makes it possible for us to envision a global tapestry of housing as commons. Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Contents Figures Acknowledgements Contributors Introduction: Revisiting the housing question: The potentialities of urban commoning Part I: Informal housing, infrastructures and commoning practices Chapter 1: Weaving commons in Salvador (Bahia, Brazil): Urgency, recognition, convergence Chapter 2: Activists infrastructures and commoning ‘from below’: The case of Cheetah Camp, Mumbai Chapter 3: Subaltern place as an infrastructure of consolidation: Settling an informal neighbourhood in Mumbai Chapter 4: Commoning Aboriginal ethno-architecture: Indigenous housing experiences in Australia Chapter 5: Feeding together: The revolution starts in the kitchen Part II: Cooperatives, squats and housing struggles Chapter 6: Hybrid commons: Housing cooperatives in Zurich Chapter 7: Urban commoning and popular power: The ‘autonomous neighbourhoods’ in Mexico City Chapter 8: Berlin and the city as commons Chapter 9: Refugee housing squats as shared heterotopias: The case of City Plaza Athens squat Chapter 10: The Dandara community-occupation: Destitution-constitution movements towards urban commons in Belo Horizonte (Brazil) Part III: In defence of the collective right to housing Chapter 11: Materializing the self-management: Tracking the commons in Yugoslav housing economy Chapter 12: A Greek activist’s reflections on the housing struggles and the movement against foreclosures in Athens Chapter 13: The power of public participation: Socio-economic impacts of urban development on the local commons in Egypt Chapter 14: From social urbanism to strategies of collective action in Medellin Chapter 15: Housing policy as a form of urban governance: The Barbican Estate and the enclosure of the urban commons Epilogue: Congregations: On the inhabitation of urban humans Index "Experiences of the struggle for housing, ignited by the lack of social and affordable housing, have led to the establishing of shared and self-managed housing areas. In such a context, it becomes crucially important to re-think the need to define common urban worlds "from below". Here, Penny Travlou and Stavros Stavridis trace contemporary practices of urban commoning through which people re-define housing economies. Connecting to a rich literature on the importance of commons and of practices of commoning for the creation of emancipated societies, the authors discuss whether housing struggles and co-habitation experiences may contribute in crucial ways to the development of a commoning culture. The authors explore a variety of urban contexts through global case studies from across the Global North and South, in search of concrete examples that illustrate the potentialities of urban commoning"-- Provided by publisher