Urban Commons

‘Cities are set to rule the world, yet how they work as collectives is poorly understood or misinterpreted through borrowed ideas on the commons. This insightful volume looks from within the city to propose atmospheres, active usage of the shared, and commoners as key collectives, in the process revealing the true nature of the urban commons and gesturing the kind of politics needed to secure a better urban and global future. A marvelous original book’. Ash Amin, 1931 Chair of Geography, University of Cambridge and author of Land of Strangers (Polity, 2012).

‘It is exciting to see a book that tackles the urban commons from so many angles and scholarly perspectives. We get insights from planning, philosophy, urban studies and beyond, and a kaleidoscopic focus on the commons in relation to non-humans, waste, exclusion, atmosphere and more. It is also heartening to see the careful and critical attention that the commons – a slippery, multivalent and mobile category – deserves’. Nicholas Blomley, Professor of Geography, Simon Fraser University and author of Rights of Passage (Routledge, 2011).

‘Urban Commons presents a fresh and innovative approach to investigating the city through the organisation of collectivity. Its point of departure is a critique of the conventional understanding of urban commons as finite resource pools. Instead, the book tests the city as a non-subtractive resource which implies that its consumption simultaneously becomes a form of production. In other words, using the city does not diminish but increases its value. Based on this conceptual framework, the book brings together a broad range of theoretical and empirical contributions and engages the reader with a rich, multidisciplinary juxtaposition of critical inquiries. Urban Commons addresses fundamental questions of the contemporary urban condition. It establishes perspectives that can enrich diverse discourses ranging from sustainable development in cities to issues of urban governance, collaboration and co-production. Its combination of theorising and presenting case studies makes it accessible to a broad audience of urban scholars, practitioners and students. It is a highly recommendable resource for anyone interested in how the wider notion of ‘the commons’ can be translated to urban studies’. Philipp Rode, Executive Director, LSE Cities, London School of Economics and Political Science.