Commons & community economies:

entry points to design for eco-social justice?

Fabio Franz, PhD Candidate,

Sheffield School of Architecture

Bianca Elzenbaumer, Research Fellow,

Leeds College of Art

bravenewalps@gmail.com

brave-new-alps.com | @bravenewalps

DR

S2016 —

Un

iversity of Brigh

ton —

29 Jun

e 2016

What points of orientation can the

framework of the commons and that of

community economies offer designers

working towards progressive eco-social

change?

Commons and commoning as a material

and social/practical dimension that

empowers people to cultivate other values

and ways of relating to each other

(and to nature) than the ones embodied

and reproduced by capital.1

1 See De Angelis, M. (2007). The Beginning of History: Value Struggles and Global

Capital. London: Pluto Press.

... as a means to the creation of an

egalitarian and cooperative society.2

2 Federici, S., & Caffentzis, G. (2014). Commons against and beyond capitalism.

Community Development Journal, 49(S1), i92–i105.

COMMUNI

TY

RESOURCES

C OMMONING

COMMONST H E

A web of direct relations among subject whose repetitive engagement and feedback processes around common interests allow them, through conflict and/or cooperation, to define the norms of their interaction.

COMMUNI

TY

RESOURCES

C OMMONING

COMMONST H E

A web of direct relations among subject whose repetitive engagement and feedback processes around common interests allow them, through conflict and/or cooperation, to define the norms of their interaction.

Those practices of constant democratic and horizontal negotiation between the members of a community around the terms of access to (but also production, preservation, distribution and circulation of) the resources it holdsin common.

COMMUNI

TY

RESOURCES

C OMMONING

COMMONST H E

There can be

NO COMMONS

WITHOUT COMMUNITY6,

NO COMMONS

WITHOUT COMMONING7 and

NO COMMUNITY

WITHOUT COMMONING.

6 Federici, S., & Caffentzis, G. (2014). Commons against and beyond capitalism.

Community Development Journal, 49(S1), i92–i105.

7 De Angelis, M. (2010b). The Production of Commons and the “Explosion” of

the Middle Class. Antipode, 42(4), 954–977.

In a critical posthumanist approach, we

understand ‘community’ as constituted by

humans and more-than-human others.

How to go beyond an instrumental vision

of nature where on one hand there are

human communities and on the other hand

there are resources for humans to use?

What kind of power relations between

different actors do our design proposals

for commoning strengthen, weaken or

transform?

What kind of power relations between

different actors do our design proposals

for commoning strengthen, weaken or

transform?

What does it mean to design for just

relations between humans and

more-than-human assemblages?

What kind of power relations between

different actors do our design proposals

for commoning strengthen, weaken or

transform?

What does it mean to design for just

relations between humans and

more-than-human assemblages?

How to ‘common with the more-than-human?’

Could community economies represent

practical vectors to be mobilised in

dealing with these questions?

WAGE LABOUR

BETWEEN FRIENDS

IN NEIGHBOURHOODS

PRODUCER CO-OPERATIVESINFORMAL LENDING

ON THE STREETS

NON-CAPITALIST FIRM

WITHIN FAMILIES

MOONLIGHTING

UNDER THE TABLE

NOT FOR MARKET

SELF-EMPLOYMENT

IN SCHOOLS

ILLEGAL

SLAVE LABOUR

THE RETIRED

NOT MONETISED

VOLUNTEER

UNPAID

BARTER

CONSUMER COOPERATIVES

GIFTS

PRODUCE FOR A MARKET IN A CAPITALIST FIRM

WAGE LABOUR

BETWEEN FRIENDS

IN NEIGHBOURHOODS

PRODUCER CO-OPERATIVESINFORMAL LENDING

ON THE STREETS

NON-CAPITALIST FIRM

WITHIN FAMILIES

MOONLIGHTING

UNDER THE TABLE

NOT FOR MARKET

SELF-EMPLOYMENT

IN SCHOOLS

ILLEGAL

SLAVE LABOUR

THE RETIRED

NOT MONETISED

VOLUNTEER

UNPAID

BARTER

CONSUMER COOPERATIVES

GIFTS

PRODUCE FOR A MARKET IN A CAPITALIST FIRM

Community economies imply that

social interdependency (an economic

being-in-common) as well as ecological

interdependency (a being-in-common with

all of earth’s others) is acknowledged and

respected.8

8 Miller, Ethan. “Community Economy: Ontology, Ethics, and Politics for

Radically-Democratic Economic Organizing.” Community Economies, 2013.

When designing with community

economies in mind we negotiate: what is

necessary to personal, social and ecological

survival;

When designing with community

economies in mind we negotiate: what is

necessary to personal, social and ecological

survival; how surplus is appropriated and

distributed;

When designing with community

economies in mind we negotiate: what is

necessary to personal, social and ecological

survival; how surplus is appropriated and

distributed; whether and how surplus is to

be produced and consumed;

When designing with community

economies in mind we negotiate: what is

necessary to personal, social and ecological

survival; how surplus is appropriated and

distributed; whether and how surplus is to

be produced and consumed; how a commons

is produced and sustained.9

9 www.communityeconomies.org

We understand the creation of commons

and their enclosure as an ongoing process.

We understand the creation of commons

and their enclosure as an ongoing process.

If we as designers want to contribute to

create, defend or preserve commons,

what is our role and responsibility?

COLONISED

FRONTIER

space of

enclosure

COLONISABLE

COLONISED

FRONTIER

space of

enclosure

COLONISABLE

Thank you