In this paper the viability of housing commons as an alternative to commercial and public housing provision is examined. With rising financial burdens for renters in German cities over the past ten years, and state and market failing to provide affordable and accessible housing, claims to (re)communalize and decommodify housing are on the rise. The study is contextualized through tracing changing housing policies post-1945, and historic accounts of housing commons in the German context. Arguing for the advantages of conceptualizing housing as a common good, the applicability, limitations, and contradictions of this approach are explored. Founded in the “new commons” literature, the paper highlights the specific characteristics and challenges of urban housing commons and considers them regarding the complex in(ter)dependencies with market and state. Seven semi-structured interviews with residents of alternative housing projects (based on the principles of decommodification and self-management) and people from supporting organizations were conducted to gain insights into the community. It shows that internal group dynamics, interaction with outside actors on different levels, and the high prerequisites for creating and maintaining housing commons create multiple stress factors, currently preventing the housing commons to unfold their full potential. Mainly the high real estate prices and the consequent need to contribute equity capital prevent the housing commons from becoming a large-scale alternative to other housing providers. The paper stipulates that despite the threat of more rigid regulation, cooperation with the state is a promising way forward for the housing commons to overcome market pressures and provide a much-needed relief to overburdened renters in the German housing market, while simultaneously opening the possibility to “commonalise” the state.

In cities we generally distinguish between public and private space. This thesis tackles the distinction between public and private property and searches for the urban commons where property is determined by collective action and thus creates a greater spatial justice. A case study analyzes the Urban Garden Project “Trädgård på spåret” in Stockholm and shows how unconventional arrangements can generate a lively place in the urban fabric. The final discussion interprets the concept of urban commons and contemplates its classification within the planning discipline. / I städer skiljer vi generellt mellan offentligt och privat utrymme. Denna avhandlingförsöker att nyansera den enkla distinktionen mellan offentlig och privat mark ochgår på jakt efter de urbana allmänningar (urban commons) vilkas ägande bestämsav kollektivism och som skapar spatiell rättvisa (spatial justice). En fallstudieanalyserar Urban Garden-projektet «Trädgård på Spåret» i Stockholm och visarhur okonventionella arrangemang har gett upphov till en livlig plats, som går långtutöver trädgårdens traditionella gränser. I den avslutande diskussionen tolkar vibegreppet urbana allmänningar och betraktar dess placering i planeringsämnet. / In Städten unterscheiden wir generell zwischen öffentlichem und privatem Raum.Diese Thesis versucht die simple Unterscheidung zwischen öffentlichem undprivatem Grundeigentum aufzubrechen und begibt sich auf die Suche nach der‚urbanen Allmende’ (urban commons) in der Eigentum durch Kollektivismus bestimmtwird und somit räumliche Gerechtigkeit (spatial justice) schafft. Eine Fallstudieanalysiert das urbane Gartenprojekt „Trädgård på spåret“ in Stockholm und zeigtauf wie durch unkonventionelle Regelungen ein lebhafter Ort entstanden ist, dersich in die Stadt verwurzelt hat und weit über die Grenzen des Gärtners hinausgeht.In der abschließenden Diskussion wird der Begriff der urbanen Allmendeinterpretiert und dessen Einordnung in die Planungsdisziplin betrachtet. / Urban Form and Social Behavior

The project occurs in Gerani which currently holds a complex social network and a rich historical building stock. The major challenge for the thesis was to illustrate a way of resetting the existing human, natural and physical resources and work out a proposal that relates architecture and planning to society and economy but goes beyond real estate investments. The project aims to recombine the area’s building stock, human potential and manufacturing tradition with innovation, in order to create a small-scale production hub. It proposes the administration of resources ‘in common’ and puts forward appropriate tools for active involvement of inhabitants, owners and newcomers alike. It thus advocates for a new model of city ‘sharing’ (nome), which unlike the case of a city managed by the experts, it has a potential to unfold an alternative relation between architecture and the city’s economy and work out a notion of ‘Home’ for the rapidly deteriorating Athens city-centre.

Today, housing is considered a commodity. This is a global challenge with direct local consequences such as unaffordability, limited housing choice, and segregation. To address these disparities, this thesis expresses a demand for change by proposing a housing manifesto for Stockholm. The aim is to explore alternative theories and models to propose a framework that is capable of redefining housing from a feminist and socio-ecological perspective. Our approach demands seeing housing as a human right, a commons, and a circle of care. To find specificity and materiality, the project focuses on applying the manifesto on two scenarios, Husby and Gasverket, which demonstrate problematic tendencies in the current housing system. By implementing strategies at different scales, we project alternatives in the urban form. This thesis challenges the role of urban planners and designers as collaborators and enablers of a vision of housing with and for all.

The work first introduces the area of public licenses as a space between the copyright law and public domain. After that, consecutively for proprietary software, free and open source software, open hardware and open content, it maps particular types of public licenses and the accompanying social and cultural movements, puts them in mutual as well as historical context, examines their characteristics and compares them to each other, shows how the public licenses are defined by various accompanying movements, and also analyses which obstacles to the usage of public licenses are put by the Czech law. Keywords Copyright, licenses, open source, creative commons, public domain, software, design.

No description available.

Degradations of the rangelands is very common around the permanent settlements of the central rangelands of Somalia. This degradation is attributed to overstocking resulting form the fact that the rangelands are communally owned and herders are ignoring the shadow value of the forage. Information about the optimal herd size would help halt the rangeland degradation. In this study, two allocation mechanisms were compared. The first was the private ownership solution where someone owns the rangeland and decides how many animals should be grazed there. The second was the solution where the rangeland is owned in common by the dwellers of the area and access to it is free and unrestricted. For the private ownership, a model was developed that solves the economically optimal herd size and forage stock. The model also determines the optimal milk production and sales and live-cattle sales and slaughters during the transition period and at the stationary state. For the communal ownership, the set of the first-order conditions of the model were solved simultaneously after the shadow value of the forage was dropped. A computer program of the optimization algorithm, GAM/MINOS, was used to solve both problems using data from the central rangelands of Somalia. GAMS/MINOS provided the optimal values of all of the state, costate, and control variables during the transition period and at the stationary state.

In his seminal essay, "The Tragedy of the Commons" (1968), Garrett Hardin argued that unless human population growth is controlled, the tragedy of common resource destruction is inevitable. This research consists of the development of an evolutionary computer model to simulate the Tragedy of the Commons, and social and economic solutions that have been proposed. In the simulations, multiattribute decision models are used to represent the tradeoffs a variety of types of individuals make among economic and social values in an uncertain environment. Individuals in each iteration of the simulation decide whether or not to exploit a common resource that has a stochastic regeneration rate. A genetic algorithm is used to simulate the way the decision makers respond to economic and social payoffs that result from their choices, as the commons responds to their actions over time. Game theory analyses of the commons dilemma are also included that, in contrast to previous analyses of the Tragedy of the Commons, incorporate not only economic attributes, but social and aesthetic attributes as well. These analyses indicate that the games underlying the Tragedy of the Commons may be similar to not only the N-person Prisoner's Dilemma, as is sometimes argued, but also N-person games of Chicken, Benevolent Chicken, and Hero. Population diversity is found to be particularly important to solutions in both the evolutionary simulations and the game theory analyses. The simulations and analyses support the hypothesis that, even if potential solutions that Hardin dismissed as unrealistic in the real world are given an opportunity to work in a simulated computer world, Hardin is right: for any given commons regeneration rate, the ultimate destruction of the commons can be prevented only by draconian economic or political measures, unrealistic rates of technological innovation or changes in social values, or coercive control of population growth.

No description available.

In 1888, the lake Hjälmaren underwent a process of lowering by almost 2 metres with the aim of gaining 19.000 ha of arable land. This process had a wide array of ecological implications, and in connection with other historical events, it also resulted in spatial and social cracks dividing the city of Örebro laying on Hjälmaren’s west shore. The changing physical aspects of the city have led us to question the relationship of humans and species to the lake, but also to the stream Svartån connecting the lake and the city. Örebro used to be a city of collective practices and shared resources. It had much stronger ties to water as it used to be more present and made the city more centre-oriented. This does not apply today - the city’s development is oriented outwards, its centre lacks in quality non-consumerist spaces and capitalism and individualism are at the forefront. With this explorative design thesis, we propose solutions to activate Hjälmaren and Svartån. Our project widens the offer of common spaces and resources in Örebro, giving its residents more opportunities to interact in the everyday presence of water – just like in the past, but with a more modern spin.