City networks and the socio-ecological transition. A European inventory

Area 5 focuses on the regional and local dimensions of the new European path to socio-ecological transition. Its central assumption is that any strategy developed to enhance a socio-ecological transition is unlikely to yield strong results unless the resources of regional and local actors are mobilised and the complex interactions between central policy initiatives and their regional or local implementation are taken into account. In order to better understand how cities and regions initiate processes of change in relation to sustainability, this milestone focuses on networks of cities, regions and their communities around the issue of sustainable development. Indeed, those networks have often been described in the literature as a crucial element in implementing sustainable development at subnational and local levels and across borders. This milestone takes the form of a short review of the relevant literature that introduces an inventory of the various sustainability networks involving cities and regions across Europe mapping them against a set of established criteria. Findings of the inventory's analysis are presented, some new avenues for research and policy-making being suggested

co-produire une connaissance transformative

The goal of this article is to inform practitioners and researchers alike about the emerging practice of collaboratively mapping alternative economies. The paper draws from an inventory of over 200 maps, action research, and semi-structured interviews to explore how collaborative mapping – a practice that is largely citizen-driven – may be leveraged for the co-production of (scientific) knowledge about alternative economies. An array of real and ideal types is proposed in order to help navigate the various dimensions of collaborative mapping. Four lines of discussion are proposed: (1) what can we learn from maps when reframed as mappings – as processes? (2) How performativity may bring light to evaluating the transformational nature of knowledge derived from collaborative? (3) How does collaborative mapping offer avenues for rethinking empowerment of citizens in producing knowledge about alternative economies? And, (4) what new challenges are emerging from acknowledging digital knowledge as a commons?Le but de cet article est d’informer autant les personnes de terrain que les chercheurs à propos de la cartographie collaborative appliquée dans le champ des économies alternatives. Cette étude est basée sur un inventaire de plus de 200 cartes, une recherche-action de deux ans, ainsi que des entretiens semi-directifs afin d’explorer dans quelle mesure la cartographie collaborative – une pratique largement à l’initiative des citoyens – peut être mise à profit de la co-production d’une connaissance des économies alternatives. Un éventail d’idéaux-types et de types réels est proposé afin de s’orienter à travers les diverses dimensions de la cartographie collaborative. Quatre axes de discussion sont explorés : (1) que peut-on apprendre de ces cartes lorsqu’elles sont comprise comme processus de cartographies ? (2) comment le concept de performativité permet de mieux comprendre la nature transformatrice de connaissances dérivées de cartographies collaboratives ; (3) dans quelle mesure la cartographie collaborative offre des pistes de réflexion afin de repenser la question de l’agence des citoyens dans la production de connaissances au sujet des économies alternatives ; et, enfin, (4) quels nouveaux défis découlent d’une reconceptualisation de la connaissance comme un commun ?Peer Reviewe

The Role of Digital Commons in a Socio-Ecological Transition of Cities

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

Sharing Cities and Commoning: An Alternative Narrative for Just and Sustainable Cities

Sharing Cities are emerging as an alternative narrative which promotes sharing as a transformative phenomenon for just and sustainable cities. This article shows that Sharing Cities are conceived within the alternative political economy of the commons. Bringing a theoretical contribution into dialogue with a practice-oriented book, this paper aims at checking the concept of Sharing Cities against the reality on the ground by reviewing 137 secondary cases: (1) Is communal (non-commercial) sharing a substantial phenomenon? (2) What is the role of technology—and more widely, of intermediation—in sharing practices? (3) If at all, what is being transformed by sharing practices? (4) Are commons depicted in each case? Results show that most cases display a communal form of sharing that is independent of digital platforms, i.e., that the sharing transformation affects all arenas of production and social reproduction across a wide variety of sectors, and it relies on translocal replication rather than up-scaling. With only 26% of cases apparently depicting a commons, this paper argues for a relational epistemology of urban commoning, shifting the focus to more-than-human commoning-communities. Thus, Sharing Cities are captured not only as a set of policy proposals and practices but as the performative depiction of an alternative worldview based on interdependence, ready for the Anthropocene.Peer Reviewe

Commoning the city, from data to physical space

This article describes the phenomenon of commoning the city. It is understood as the co-production of new resources and/or the process of reclaiming existing assets (public or private) as a commons. We report on two original case studies (in New York City and Berlin) where the constitution of a data commons has been the starting point of a wider process of commoning the urban physical space: vacant public land on the one hand, and public fruit trees and other urban edibles on the other hand. Commoning the city in the digital age is therefore described as a hybrid process spanning over from the digital to the physical urban space, online and onland. In contrast to the smart cities approach, it lays a more citizen-oriented narrative of the impact of digitalization on urban life. This article addresses the research questions: How does the hybrid commoning process of (1) data and the related (2) public space take place? What is the role of the grassroots providers of the collaborative mapping infrastructure? Methodologically, the case study analyses are structured following existing adaptations of the Institutional Analysis and Development to the specificities of knowledge/information commons by Frischmann, Madison et al. (2014). Results show that, beyond appearances, the commoning of data is mostly a means, attracting visibility and attention, for an end: the wider commoning of urban land. The true focus of the action arena resides around the self-governance of land and trees and the constitution of local communities. A trend in the evolution of the role of local authorities towards a more collaborative state is confirmed and seems partly explained by increasing financial austerity forcing local governments to rely more on local civic actors. Another reason is that data makes city government more porous to bottom-up action. However this requires good practice in opening urban data sets, the existence of local civic capacity, and active community organizing (much) beyond the digital world. We conclude by suggesting an analytical departure from the IAD framework and its naturalist conception that approaches the commons as a resource and, as a consequence, forces an artificial divide between the intangible and tangible dimensions of the commoning process. Subsequently, we recommend approaching the phenomenon we identified as ‘commoning the city’ as a living practice of collaboratively producing a shared experience of the place, where the intangible (data) and tangible (land), the human and non-human, are seen as a whole.Peer Reviewe

Sharing Cities and Commoning: An Alternative Narrative for Just and Sustainable Cities

Sharing Cities are emerging as an alternative narrative which promotes sharing as a transformative phenomenon for just and sustainable cities. This article shows that Sharing Cities are conceived within the alternative political economy of the commons. Bringing a theoretical contribution into dialogue with a practice-oriented book, this paper aims at checking the concept of Sharing Cities against the reality on the ground by reviewing 137 secondary cases: (1) Is communal (non-commercial) sharing a substantial phenomenon? (2) What is the role of technology—and more widely, of intermediation—in sharing practices? (3) If at all, what is being transformed by sharing practices? (4) Are commons depicted in each case? Results show that most cases display a communal form of sharing that is independent of digital platforms, i.e., that the sharing transformation affects all arenas of production and social reproduction across a wide variety of sectors, and it relies on translocal replication rather than up-scaling. With only 26% of cases apparently depicting a commons, this paper argues for a relational epistemology of urban commoning, shifting the focus to more-than-human commoning-communities. Thus, Sharing Cities are captured not only as a set of policy proposals and practices but as the performative depiction of an alternative worldview based on interdependence, ready for the Anthropocene.</jats:p

Collaboratively mapping alternative economies

The goal of this article is to inform practitioners and researchers alike about the emerging practice of collaboratively mapping alternative economies. The paper draws from an inventory of over 200 maps, action research, and semi-structured interviews to explore how collaborative mapping – a practice that is largely citizen-driven – may be leveraged for the co-production of (scientific) knowledge about alternative economies. An array of real and ideal types is proposed in order to help navigate the various dimensions of collaborative mapping. Four lines of discussion are proposed: (1) what can we learn from maps when reframed as mappings – as processes? (2) How performativity may bring light to evaluating the transformational nature of knowledge derived from collaborative? (3) How does collaborative mapping offer avenues for rethinking empowerment of citizens in producing knowledge about alternative economies? And, (4) what new challenges are emerging from acknowledging digital knowledge as a commons

Le chirurgien dentiste à la maternité

LILLE2-BU Santé-Recherche (593502101) / SudocPARIS-BIUM (751062103) / SudocLILLE2-UFR Odontologie (593502202) / SudocSudocFranceF