By Khushboo Balwani. Cross-posted from Shareable. This article was adapted from our latest book, “Sharing Cities: Activating the Urban Commons.” Download your free pdf copy today. The goal of the “Huertas Familiares para Autoconsumo” (Urban Family Gardens) initiative is to provide vulnerable families with better access to healthy, fresh and nutritious food. The program enables these families, often displaced… Continue reading
Commons Network released the latest publication called ‘Urban Commons Shared Spaces’. The paper is a research project and report, based on 2 years of research in the cities of Berlin and Amsterdam. The paper was co-created with our friends at raumlaborberlin. ‘Shared Spaces’ features many concrete policy ideas for municipal leaders and lawmakers, as well as… Continue reading
Reposted from The Alternative UK We are interested in talk about “establishing the commons” at A/UK, because the concept implies a very active form of citizenship. People may transact through the marketplace, or they may rely on the state, but they are actively responsible for a commons. It’s a resource which is both maintained and… Continue reading
Reposted from Cooperativecity.org The international debate on the commons has a long history but only in recent years has it started gearing towards the definition of Urban Commons and what their role is in shaping our society, especially at the wake of the economic crisis. This debate developed strongly in Italy as a result of… Continue reading
When looking at contemporary cities around the world today, one could easily conclude that they seem increasingly designed to accommodate the requirements and interests of powerful financial actors, over those of the citizens who inhabit them. As these faceless players encroach ever further onto a range of spaces – both physical and intangible – in… Continue reading
The most pressing challenges facing cities today, including wealth inequality, environmental pollution, climate resilience, and social isolation, have the potential to be mitigated by the efficient and equitable sharing of vital resources with each other. Wed 21 November 2018, 18:15 – 20:30 GMT Makespace Oxford: 1 Aristotle Lane, Oxford OX2 6TP, United Kingdom REGISTER HERE… Continue reading
Michel Bauwens: Mapping is important to the transition towards a more ecologically-balanced and socially-just commons-centric society, as it brings visibility and conscious awareness to the great diversity of initiatives taking place, and can also be a community-building tool. Here is a recent and very professionally undertaken mapping effort for the Italian commons, undertaken by our friends… Continue reading
Democratizing Urban Technology Evgeny Morozov and Francesca Bria – January 2018. Republished from Rosa Luxemburg New York. Evgeny Morozov and Francesca Bria: Following the celebration of the “creative city” (as described by Richard Florida), the “smart city” has become the new flavor of the month—and a brand. It makes clever use of resources, and it attracts money,… Continue reading
Shareable, a nonprofit media outlet co-founded by Neal Gorenflo in 2009, is devoted to the sharing economy (the real sharing economy of platform cooperatives and other open, self-organized effort — not proprietary, walled-garden, Death Star platforms like Uber and Airbnb). In 2011 Shareable organized the Share San Francisco conference to promote the city as a platform for sharing, which in turn… Continue reading
Republished from JOPP By Anke Schwarz PART I: Interview with members of the Tapullo collective, Genoa 29 May, 2017 — Building something together is in itself a good way to create a community Wireless community networks have been around for a while, but are regaining some attention these days as means of strengthening local interaction… Continue reading
Michel Bauwens: In the p2p/commons literature of a few years ago, we introduced a way of thinking about the world that challenges the ‘accumulation of capital’ with the ‘accumulation of the common’. There is a tendency to think of this as accumulating simply capital resources of another kind, i.e. for investing (‘transvestment’) in commons-based shared… Continue reading
Nithin Coca: Egushi Shintaro is a researcher, author, and organizer, focusing on urban policy, rural revitalization, and civic economy projects. Originally from Fukuoka prefecture in the southern Japanese island of Kyushu, Shintaro is now based in Tokyo. He is a regular contributor to Forbes Japan and has published four books, the most recent of which… Continue reading
Join the P2P Foundation‘s Michel Bauwens and LabGov‘s Elena De Nictolis for this special event on Urban Commons Transitions. The event is organized by our colleagues at Oikos.be and the following text is taken from their website. June 8th 2018 19:30 – 21:30 Location: IHECS Brussels School for Journalism and Communication, Stoofstraat 58, Brussel, Brussel, België… Continue reading
Cross-posted from Shareable. Amanda Abrams: For years, Wayne Trevor was a typical resident of West Norwood, a suburban region in south London. He knew a couple of his neighbors and mostly thought of the area as a place to commute to and from his job as a customer strategy senior sponsor at the Transport for… Continue reading
This site is about foraging in the city. It promotes the idea that cities can become edible. That edible cities are a commons that all urban actors should strive to produce together. Adrien Labaeye is taking the lead on this great new initiative dedicated to foraging and the urban food commons. The following texts are… Continue reading
Who doesn’t want an Urban Commons cookbook? Help support this project by pitching to their Kickstarter page. The following was written by Mary Dellenbaugh-Losse, founding member of the Urban Research Group and co-editor of the Urban Commons Cookbook. Mary Dellenbaugh-Losse: Dear friends of the urban commons, As some of you already know, a few members… Continue reading