Commoning: Visions, Resources, Practices

Commoning practices have in recent years attracted increasing attention, also outside academia, as a potential solution to many of the problems facing the world today – social, political, and environmental – and as political program for a common future based on principles of solidarity, justice, equality, and sustainability. Within academia, commoning has been treated as a new paradigm for rethinking the (global) economy, north-south and south-south relations, resource access and environmental justice, and as a transformative practice emphasizing participation, collaboration and well-being. Commoning constitutes a critique of and envisions alternatives to the ongoing privatization of economic, political, knowledge and ecological resources by transnational corporations. It is the tendency of the commons to resist neoliberal regimes of management and control that generates new emancipatory and participatory possibilities.

Being ‚in common‘ here forms the basis for re-imagining sociality, solidarity and citizenship outside the frameworks of community and nation, and beyond identity markers that emphasize sameness or difference. The commons may offer alternative modes of access and inclusion that defy conventional legal frameworks of ownership and dominant economic values of equivalence. Nonetheless, zones of enclosure and exclusion may arise at the boundaries and fringes of common projects. The research area shall explore these three interlinked aspects of:

(1) commoning practices

(2) the commons

(3) states of being in common

We emphasize the interdisciplinary nature of debates on commoning, the strong participation of scholars from the Global South, and the role of indigenous and marginalized groups in spearheading commoning practices, concepts, and knowledge. Our approach to commoning highlights relations, values, and future-oriented creativity. Socialities, infrastructures, knowledge/arts/design, ecologies, and human economies are possible fields or foci to study commoning processes, as are the local/translocal, rural/urban spatial dimensions of the commons.

Activities

Ongoing and Upcoming Activities

Winter Semester 2023/2024

Commoning Dialogue Series

12 December 2023 18:00-20:00 On Care of Our Commons Home: The Past, Present, and Future of English Lowland Commons with Sharon Gradham

Event abstract:

Sharon Gardham (Research Centre for Environmental Humanities, Bath Spa University) in Dialogue with Prof. Kate Rigby (Alexander von Humboldt Professor, Director of the Multidisciplinary Environmental Studies in the Humanities (MESH), University of Cologne). Despite more than 500 years of repeated assaults and attempts at eradication, the ancient practice of 'commoning' still persists on small pockets of land in Southern England. As ongoing processes of capitalism continue to engulf and privatise shared spaces, undeveloped areas of actively farmed common land have become precious refuges, both for humans and for other species. Yet as these places continue to be squeezed by many conflicting factors, their future survival has become increasingly perilous. In this online Commoning Dialogue, Sharon Gardham will examine such a place - Rodborough Common in the Cotswolds area of western England - and discuss the intersection of academic practice of the environmental humanities with on-the-ground management and conservation with Prof Kate Rigby.

23 October 2023 18:00-20:00 Art/Commons - Anthropology Beyond Capitalism with Massimiliano Mollona

Event abstract: Through a transdisciplinary conversation between anthropology, art, and political economy, we aim to unpack the notion of the commons. Imagining a future “Museum of the Commons” between artistic practice and public outreach, this dialogue will explore themes at the forefront of anthropology within and beyond capitalism, including notions of work, environment and property. Our guest, Prof. Dr. Massimiliano Mollona (Università di Bologna) published the first book to theorize the commons from the perspectives of contemporary art history and anthropology, focusing on the ongoing tensions between art and capitalism. A dialogue with Prof. Dr. Massimo Mollona, Prof. Dr. Susanne Brandtstädter (University of Cologne) and Dr. Charlotte Bruckermann (University of Cologne).

Davide Brocchi (in dialogue with Kate Rigby), date tbc

Dimitris Dalakoglou, date and dialogue tbc

Summer Semester 2024

Continuation of Commoning Dialogues Series

Excursion for focus group members to the Hauberge forest commons in the Siegerland to learn about traditional communal forestry arrangements

This excursion is organized by Michael Kleinod and will take place in May 2024. Historically, in the Hauberge each cooperative member/household received a fixed share that could, and still can, be freely traded. Resources included wood for charcoal, cattle pasture, and agricultural plots, and weathered both the transformations of mining and steel production, as well as recent turns to commercial forestry and renewable energy production.

Panel submission for European Association of Social Anthropology Conference in Barcelona (23-26 July 2024) “Crisis Commons: Un/Doing Human Mutualities”
(Susanne Brandtstädter, Dimitris Dalkoglou, Charlotte Bruckermann)

A more long-term goal is to establish a network on Commoning with funding through the DFG Scientific Network program.

Past Events

GSSC meeting 24th January 2023

Building on the proposal of “Commoning: Visions, resources, and practices”, we wrote the additional text on the three interlinked aspects of the commons, commoning, and being in common. This formed the basis for our workshop on June 15th 2023 at the GSSC.

GSSC Workshop “The Commons, In Common, and Commoning”, June 15th 2023

We invited four external speakers to share their work on the three interrelated aspects of the commons, in common and commoning. These speakers were Tobias Haller, Institute of Social Anthropology, University of Bern; Harry Walker, Department of Anthropology, London School of Economics; Chizu Sato, Cultural Geography, University of Wageningen; Dimitris Dalakoglou, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. The speakers strengthened the three of the areas of “The Commons, In Common, and Commoning” with their expertise on the commons as land, infrastructure and ecological resources (Haller), the terms of recognition of being in common (Walker), and open and creative processes of commoning (Sato, Dalakoglou). The different theoretical perspectives the external speakers brought to the topic inspired our further discussions in the afternoon, where we discussed the website text, as well as our individual research on the topic to date, and connections of the theme to existing projects of the GSSC and the groups planned activities going forward. This workshop was funded and hosted by the GSSC.

Existing and Upcoming Projects

Beyond individual research the following projects are particularly relevant to the research area:

Cluster of Excellence Application “Sharing a Planet in Peril” (Kate Rigby, Michael Kleinod, Thomas Widlok, Franz Krause, Michael Bollig)

MESH – “Multidisciplinary Environmental Studies in the Humanities” (Kate Rigby, Michael Bollig, Franz Krause)

EUniwell incubator workshop and CHANSE/NORFACE application on “Cosmopolitanism from below: Practices and Contexts for Engaged Ethics in Urban (and non-Urban) Settings” (Susanne Brandtstädter)

Auerbach Fellowship “Museum of the Commons” (Massimiliano Mollona, Susanne Brandtstädter, Charlotte Bruckermann)

UNIVERSITÄT ZU KÖLN

GSSC | Global South Studies Center