How can city squares, urban green spaces, cultural heritage, abandoned buildings, roads and other urban infrastructure, services or other resources and goods be governed as commons? Can cities be conceived as institutions for collective action and therefore run as commons?
Inspired by the recently implemented Bologna Regulation on Collaboration for the Care and Regeneration of the Urban Commons, as well as by other commons-based experiments in cities around Italy by the LabGov project (e.g. Co-Mantova, Co-Battipaglia and Co-Palermo), the 1st IASC Thematic Conference on the Urban Commons will bring together leading scholars, researchers, policymakers, practitioners and social innovators to take stock of the developments in the interdisciplinary study of the urban commons and related questions of urban governance. Although the urban commons has increasingly appeared as a topic of scholarly inquiry, there has yet to be sustained attention to the research questions, methodologies, and disciplinary approaches necessary to more fully conceptualize and develop the idea of the “urban commons” and the new challenges and facets it introduces into the ongoing study of the commons in diverse fields.
The conference will seek to better understand the idea of urban commons at different scales, under what circumstances and contexts urban commons emerge, what contributes to their durability and effectiveness, and what undermines them. The conference will stress the importance of an "urban commons narrative" for urban infrastructure, urban welfare, and urban development. Additionally, the conference will focus on questions of urban governance and will explore different frameworks for governing common urban resources, and the city, in a collaborative manner. The conference will highlight six thematic questions, which are:
- Conceiving the Urban Commons
- Mapping the Urban Commons
- The Urban Commons and Democratic Innovation
- The Collaborative/Sharing Economy as the Basis for a Commons-Based Urban Economy
- Social innovation as the Basis for a Commons-Based Urban Welfare
- Designing and Governing the City as a Commons
These thematic areas will be examined through two full days of plenary panels, keynote presentations, and parallel sessions with selected papers from the call for papers. The conference will conclude with a roundtable discussion intended to reflect on the methods and future directions for urban commons research.
ABSTRACT SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
- Abstracts may be submitted to urbancommons[at]labgov.it.
- Abstracts may be submitted for any of the six thematic tracks described above. The abstracts shall consist of a 500 word maximum description of the research or paper and its originality or value for urban commons studies.
- All submissions will be reviewed by an international review committee on the basis of scientific quality, relevance to the conference themes and originality.
- Those with accepted abstracts must confirm attendance by registering and paying the conference fee through the conference website.
- Conference organizers are undertaking all efforts to ensure funding from to reimburse travel costs and participation fees of presenters coming from non-OECD countries.
List of confirmed keynote speakers and session chairs
- Tine De Moor, Utrecht University (IASC - Netherlands)
- Richard Sennett, London School of Economics, New York University (UK, USA)
- Richard Burdett, London School of Economics (UK)
- Silke Hielfrich, Commons Strategy Group (Europe)
- David Bollier, Commons Strategy Group (USA)
- Michel Bauwens, Commons Strategy Group (Asia)