Author: Carlos Cámara Menoyo
Programme: Doctoral Programme on the Information and Knowledge Society
Language: Spanish, English
Supervisor: Dr Pep Vivas i Elias, Dr Ramon Ribera Fumaz, Dr Jorge León Casero
Faculty / Institute: Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3)
Key words: Commons, urban commons, cities, crisis, right to the city, ethnograpy, study case
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Abstract:
The concept of the commons is as strongly suggestive as it is ambiguous. This is evidenced by the growing interest in recent years which encompasses areas and aspirations so diverse that, despite being contradictory sometimes, share a transformative vision based on cooperation. The present doctoral research focuses on one of the subgroups of such commons, that of urban commons, aiming to problematize and understand them. In order to achieve this, and after an exhaustive theoretical framework that will lead us to the roots and contradictions of the concept, we propose a situated approach based on the praxis. Based on an ethnographic study of 29 cases (eight of them analysed in depth) within Barcelona at the beginning of the 21st century, we made five discursive threads: their demands, self-management and institutionalization, relationality, materiality and spatiality, and technology and free culture. It is from their analysis that we obtain the keys to understanding their links to urban and social aspects, ultimately, to characterize the concept of urban common in order to resolve if they can be effective drivers of urban, social and economic transformation that pushes to propose alternative and fairer cities and societies.