Can the commons be temporary? The role of transitional commoning in post-quake Christchurch

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dc.citation.issue4
dc.citation.volume24
dc.contributor.authorDombroski K
dc.contributor.authorDiprose G
dc.contributor.authorBoles I
dc.date.available2019-04-03
dc.date.issued2019-04-03
dc.description.abstractIn recent work on commons and commoning, scholars have argued that we might delink the practice of commoning from property ownership, while paying attention to modes of governance that enable long-term commons to emerge and be sustained. Yet commoning can also occur as a temporary practice, in between and around other forms of use. In this article we reflect on the transitional commoning practices and projects enabled by the Christchurch post-earthquake organisation Life in Vacant Spaces, which emerged to connect and mediate between landowners of vacant inner city demolition sites and temporary creative or entrepreneurial users. While these commons are often framed as transitional or temporary, we argue they have ongoing reverberations changing how people and local government in Christchurch approach common use. Using the cases of the physical space of the Victoria Street site “The Commons” and the virtual space of the Life in Vacant Spaces website, we show how temporary commoning projects can create and sustain the conditions of possibility required for nurturing commoner subjectivities. Thus despite their impermanence, temporary commoning projects provide a useful counter to more dominant forms of urban development and planning premised on property ownership and “permanent” timeframes, in that just as the physical space of the city being opened to commoning possibilities, so too are the expectations and dispositions of the city’s inhabitants, planners, and developers.
dc.format.extent313 - 328
dc.identifier.citationLocal Environment, 2019, 24 (4), pp. 313 - 328
dc.identifier.doi10.1080/13549839.2019.1567480
dc.identifier.elements-id454165
dc.identifier.harvestedMassey_Dark
dc.identifier.issn1469-6711
dc.relation.isPartOfLocal Environment
dc.rightsCC BY-NC-ND
dc.subject.anzsrc05 Environmental Sciences
dc.subject.anzsrc12 Built Environment and Design
dc.subject.anzsrc16 Studies in Human Society
dc.titleCan the commons be temporary? The role of transitional commoning in post-quake Christchurch
dc.typeJournal article
pubs.notesNot known
pubs.organisational-group/Massey University
pubs.organisational-group/Massey University/College of Humanities and Social Sciences
pubs.organisational-group/Massey University/College of Humanities and Social Sciences/School of People, Enviroment and Planning
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