Urban Commons : Moving Beyond State and Market

Urban space as a commons Urban space is a commons: simultaneously a sphere of human cooperation and negotiation and its product. Understanding urban space as a commons means that the much sought-after productivity of the city precedes rather than results from strategies of the state and capital. This approach challenges assumptions of urbanization as capital-driven, an idea which resonates with a range of recent urban social movements, from the Arab Spring and the Occupy movement to the “Right to the City” alliance. However commons exist in a tense relationship with state and market, both of which continually seek to exploit and control them. Initiatives to create “commons” are welcomed and even facilitated by governments in order to (re-)valorize urban space and lessen the impacts of economic restructuring, while, at the same time, the creative and reproductive potential of the urban commons is undermined by continuing attempts to commodify them. This volume examines these topics theoretically and empirically through a wide spectrum of international case studies providing perspectives from a variety of cities as diverse as Berlin, Hyderabad and Seoul. A wider discussion of commons in current scientific and activist literature from housing, public space, to urban infrastructure, is explored through the lens of the urban condition. * Publication of the conference Urban Research Group at the Georg-Simmel-Centre for Metropolitan Studies * Important topic inurban research

Urban space is a commons: simultaneously a sphere of human cooperation and negotiation and its product. Understanding urban space as a commons means that the much sought-after productivity of the city precedes rather than results from strategies of the state and capital.

This approach challenges assumptions of urbanization as capital-driven, an idea which resonates with a range of recent urban social movements, from the Arab Spring and the Occupy movement to the “Right to the City” alliance.

However commons exist in a tense relationship with state and market, both of which continually seek to exploit and control them. Initiatives to create “commons” are welcomed and even facilitated by governments in order to (re-)valorize urban space and lessen the impacts of economic restructuring, while, at the same time, the creative and reproductive potential of the urban commons is undermined by continuing attempts to commodify them.

This volume examines these topics theoretically and empirically through a wide spectrum of international case studies providing perspectives from a variety of cities as diverse as Berlin, Hyderabad and Seoul. A wider discussion of commons in current scientific and activist literature from housing, public space, to urban infrastructure, is explored through the lens of the urban condition.

Contents Preface Seizing the (Every)Day: Welcome to the Urban Commons! Perspectives Urban Commons – Dissident Practices in Emancipatory Spaces Moving Beyond the City: Conceptualizing Urban Commons from a Critical Urban Studies Perspective The Complexity of Urban Commoning from a Psychological Perspective Community Defending Space in a Changing Urban Landscape – A Study on Urban Commons in Hyderabad, India Overcoming Privatized Housing in South Korea: Looking through the Lens of “Commons” and “the Common” Uncommon Claims to the Commons: Homeless Tent Cities in the US Institutions Creating and Appropriating Urban Spaces – The Public versus the Commons: Institutions, Traditions, and Struggles in the Production of Commons and Public Spaces in Chile Acting in Reality within the Cranny of the Real: Towards an Alternative Agency of Urban Commons From Urban Commons to Urban Planning – or Vice Versa? “Planning” the Contested Gleisdreieck Territory Insurgent Acts of Being-in-Common and Housing in Spain: Making Urban Commons? Resources Housing as a Common Resource? Decommodification and Self-Organization in Housing – Examples from Germany and Switzerland Reconfiguring Energy Provision in Berlin. Commoning between Compromise and Contestation The Battle for Necropolis: Reclaiming the Past as Commons in the City of the Dead Authors Urban space is a commons: simultaneously a sphere of human cooperation and negotiation and its product. Understanding urban space as a commons means that the much sought-after productivity of the city precedes rather than results from strategies of the state and capital. This approach challenges assumptions of urbanization as capital-driven, an idea which resonates with a range of recent urban social movements, from the Arab Spring and the Occupy movement to the "Right to the City" alliance. However commons exist in a tense relationship with state and market, both of which continually seek to exploit and control them. Initiatives to create "commons" are welcomed and even facilitated by governments in order to (re- )valorize urban space and lessen the impacts of economic restructuring, while, at the same time, the creative and reproductive potential of the urban commons is undermined by continuing attempts to commodify them. This volume examines these topics theoretically and empirically through a wide spectrum of international case studies providing perspectives from a variety of cities as diverse as Berlin, Hyderabad and Seoul. A wider discussion of commons in current scientific and activist literature from housing, public space, to urban infrastructure, is explored through the lens of the urban condition This volume examines various key topics of urban commons theoretically and empirically through a wide spectrum of international case studies providing perspectives from a variety of cities as diverse as Berlin, Hyderabad and Seoul. A wider discussion of commons in current scientific and activist literature from housing, public space, to urban infrastructure, is explored through the lens of the urban condition