Henri Lefebvre’s radical call for “the right to the city” as a step in his wider utopian project of societal transformation has attracted much academic interest in the 21st century. A central problematic for advancing this idea, however, is how to take the leap from experimental heterotopies to a new form of urban commons that could provide the foundation for this new society. This thesis draws from Lefebvre’s extensive writings as well as from five weeks of ethnographic fieldwork, including a focus group and five semi-structured interviews conducted at Suderbyn ecovillage to deliver a comparative discussion on the process of establishing a common social relation to place (and ultimately space) and how it relates to scale. The main conclusion is that the dominance of use-values in combination with a synthesis of the connection of elements such as work, leisure and learning plays a central role in the process of establishing a common social relation to place in Suderbyn and that this in turn is a crucial aspect of consideration for tackling the scalar problematic.

My thesis is a call for the need of an intersectional awareness in the field of the commons, or the common or commoning. For that reason, I focus on a rather undertheorized subfield, the feminist commons because I deem that it promotes a more intersectional perspective than the male-dominated commons. My main effort concentrates to argue for the potentialities of an intersection between the commons and (feminist) decolonial project. Notions such as coloniality of power, the principle of intersectionality and the ethos of decoloniality help me to build my argument step by step. The thesis does not provide answers rather it poses questions and tries to open space for a fruitful experimentation.

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Diese Doktorarbeit untersucht die Rolle die Bürgerinitiativen an der Schnittstelle zwischen städtischen und digitalen Räumen spielen können. Sie folgt drei Untersuchungslinien. Zunächst wird untersucht, wie die Forschung zu aus Graswurzelbewegungen entstandenen Alternativen für nachhaltige und gerechte Städte von einer besonderen Art des digitalen Gemeinguts profitieren kann: des kollaborativen kartografischen Mappings. Zweitens wird die Verflechtung von digitalen Gemeingütern mit physischen städtischen Gemeingütern untersucht, um zu verstehen, wie die gemeinsame Nutzung zu transformativen Effekten in der Stadt führen kann. Drittens wird versucht, das transformative Potenzial der Gemeingüter als ein Narrativ des Wandels für nachhaltige und gerechte Städte im digitalen Zeitalter zu bewerten. Methodisch stützt die Arbeit sich auf Aktionsforschung, primäre Einzelfallstudien sowie eine vergleichende Fallstudienanalyse. Ein vorläufiges Ergebnis ist die Identifizierung von basisgeleiteten kollaborativen Mappings – hier betrachtet als Initiativen des gemeinsamen Wirkens (Commoning) – als wertvolle Wissensquellen zu alternativer Stadtökonomik. Die Hauptergebnisse zwingen uns dazu, das klassisch-naturalistische Verständnis des Gemeinguts in Frage zu stellen, welches dazu neigt, ein Gemeingut als gegeben zu betrachten. Stattdessen wäre es für die Forschung von Vorteil, einen gemeinsamen Prozess zu untersuchen: die Rückgewinnung, Schaffung und Nutzung gemeinsamer städtischer Ressourcen. Über die künstliche Trennung zwischen materiellen und immateriellen Facetten des Gemeingutes hinaus lässt sich (urbanes) Commoning am besten als eine relationale Praxis in Pflege und Aufbau von Partnerschaften für die Reproduktion von Leben in der Stadt definieren. Dies ist umso wichtiger, dass digitale Werkzeuge zwar neue Potenziale eröffnen können, aber im Gegensatz zu anderen Diskursen (Sharing Economy, Smart Cities) für das Commoning der Stadt nicht von zentraler Bedeutung sind. / This doctoral research investigates the role that citizen-driven initiatives can play at the intersection of the urban and digital spaces. It follows three lines of investigation. First, it explores how research about grassroots alternatives for sustainable and just cities may benefit from a particular type of digital commons: collaborative cartographic mappings. Second, it investigates the intertwin of digital commons with physical urban commons to understand how commoning may lead to transformative impacts in the city. Third, it seeks to evaluate the transformative potential of the commons as a narrative of change for sustainable and just cities in the digital age. Methodologically, it relies on action research, primary individual case-studies as well as a comparative case-study analysis. A preliminary result is the identification of grassroots-led collaborative mappings – seen as commoning initiatives – as valuable sources of knowledge about alternative urban economies. Main results compel us to question the classical/naturalist understanding of the commons that tends to consider it as a given. Instead, research would benefit to investigate a commoning process: the reclaiming creation, and use of shared urban resources. And, further, transcending artificial divides between the tangible and intangible facets of the commons, (urban) commoning is best defined as a relational practice of caring for and building partnerships for the reproduction of life in the city. This is all the more important that another significant result of the present work is that, while they may open new potential, digital tools are not central to commoning the city, in contrast other discourses (Sharing Economy, Smart Cities). Epistemologically, the author recommends aligning the effort of researching urban commoning to the Diverse/Community Economies research agenda which calls for performative studies of more-than-human urban commoning-communities.

Water stress is increasing globally, especially affecting arid regions of the world such as Egypt. Due to challenges related to intensifying effects of climate change and a rapidly growing population, the levels of and access to water is a continuous area of concern for the country – making it important to analyze how these water issues are managed. This study connects the hydrosocial cycle and commoning frameworks in analyzing how water is managed in a downstream, desert reclamation area in Fayoum, Egypt – and how this management, or lack thereof, affects the livelihoods of the people living there. In doing so, we examine how possible commoning practices are influenced by factors related to the hydrosocial cycle. Fieldwork has been conducted for this case study by holding participatory workshops, semi-structured interviews, and observations. Our findings imply that the hydrosocial cycle has shaped the management of water in our studied site, which has in turn affected the commoning practices that take place there. The low water levels and the saline quality of the water is what has created the prevalent forms of commoning that can be seen in the community.  The presence of a local agricultural association has also influenced the commoning practices. The quality and levels of water in the area are in part managed by neighbors borrowing irrigation minutes from each other, and by collective olive harvest. To a lesser extent there are also instances of neighbors helping each other with agricultural work throughout the year, and sharing reservoirs. There are indications that these commoning practices play a part in sustaining livelihoods in the community. The commoning practices found in the studied site have emerged in a relatively new social context and can be characterized as context specific patches of commoning, occurring on the peripheries of hybrid institutions – that have largely been shaped by hydrosocial forces. As the hydrosocial cycle is ever-changing, these commoning practices will likely also come to change.

Urbanisierung, Beton, Stein, verschwindendes Grün – mehr als die Hälfte der Menschen lebt heute in Städten. Eine dieser Städte ist Berlin. An ihrem zentralsten Ort und größten Verkehrsknotenpunkt, dem Alexanderplatz, steht der Gebäudekomplex Haus der Statistik, der die letzten elf Jahre langsam zur Ruine verkümmerte. Im Zeitraum von Juni 2019 bis Oktober 2020 begleitete ich den Prozess der Transformation dieses Ortes, in dem durch Pionier*innennutzungen versucht wird, ein alternatives, gemeinwohlorientiertes Konzept von Stadt zu entwickeln, filmisch. Stimmen und Bilder aus dem daraus entstandenen Dokumentarfilm „Allesandersplatz“ sowie Überlegungen zu seiner Dramaturgie werden in diesem collagierten Essay um die Aspekte von Fluktuation, von Partizipation und des Commoning erweitert und als Möglichkeiten einer kollektiven Stadtentwicklung verstanden. Anstatt vollständige Definitionen herauszuarbeiten, werden assoziativ verschiedene Aspekte eines Konzepts einer alternativen Stadt beleuchtet. Kann der „Allesandersplatz“ ein Vorbild für eine offene, nachhaltige und diverse Zukunft sein? Ein Ort, an dem alles anders ist?

The central aim of this thesis is to provide a detailed ethnographic account of the human ecology of the Broads - a protected wetland region in the East of England - focussing upon how working lives shape and are shaped by this reedy landscape. In conversations about the management of the Broads, the concept of "common sense" is a frequent trope; encompassing a wide range of associated meanings. But what are these meanings of "common sense" in English culture, and how do they influence the peoples of England, and landscapes in which they work? This thesis addresses these questions ethnographically; using academic and lay deployments of common sense as a route into the political economy of rural Norfolk. Based on 12 months of fieldwork in the Broads National Park, this thesis draws together interviews and participant observation with land managers of various kinds - including conservationists, farmers, gamekeepers, volunteers, gardeners, and administrators. Chapter 1 dissects the differences between academic and popular understandings of "common sense" as a phrase, and produces an ethnographically-derived, working definition. Chapter 2 examines the attitudes of farmers, establishing "the common" as a root metaphor for social and practical rectitude, actualised through labouring in a shared landscape. Chapter 3 explores how the common is sensed, reflecting upon the diverse sensoria afforded by different degrees of enclosure on a single nature reserve. Chapter 4 explores how the concept of common sense intersects with a prevailing culture of possessive individualism, creating a fragmented society in the Park, wracked by controversies over management. Chapter 5 examines bureaucracy in Broadland - frequently cast as the very antithesis of common sense. In the conclusion, we return to the title, and ask - what do the reeds have to say about land, labour, and human nature?