Common Space: The City As Commons

Annotation

The notion of the commons/commoning has become very vital point of discussion in activism, social sciences and socially engaged art practices. As socially engaged art practices in urban spaces might be useful in contributing to commoning practices and debating commons in collective spaces, many methodologies arise from art. Therefore, this book is useful to read with regard to the art practice of commons. My long-time colleague Stavros argues that commoning practices are relational and open-ended; and negotiation is a vital part. Furthermore, as he follows his experiences of commoning practices in the urban struggle of Greece and in Latin America, he contributes to the debate by bringing concrete cases to the fore and writing through his experienced practice of commoning.

Pelin Tan

Collective memory can become an important target as well as a means of commoning. The most obvious aspect of this relation is the power that collective memory has to give form and content to events in the past which the members of a community recognize as their common past.