The City as a Commons

TLDR

Rapid urbanization fuels contestations over city space, with residents claiming urban goods as shared resources to resist privatization, yet scholars have not fully developed the urban commons concept, limiting its policy relevance. The study situates these claims within an emerging urban commons framework embraced by progressive reformers and scholars across disciplines. The urban commons framework offers a discourse and set of tools that can guide the development of revitalized and inclusive cities.

Abstract

As rapid urbanization intensifies around the world, so do contestations over how city space is utilized and for whose benefit urban revitalization is undertaken. The most prominent sites of this contestation are efforts by city residents to claim important urban goods — open squares, parks, abandoned or underutilized buildings, vacant lots, cultural institutions, streets and other urban infrastructure — as collective, or shared, resources of urban communities. The assertion of a common stake or interest in resources shared with others is a way of resisting the privatization and/or commodification of these resources. We situate these claims within an emerging "urban commons" framework embraced by progressive reformers and scholars across multiple disciplines. The urban commons framework has the potential to provide a discourse, and set of tools, for the development of revitalized and inclusive cities. Yet, scholars have failed to fully develop the concept of the "urban commons," limiting its utility to policymakers.