Urban Commons and the Welfare Mix: Preliminary Notes on a Risky Transformation and the Power of Space | Verena Lenna (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)
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As pointed out by Italian jurist Stefano Rodotà, commons inherently represent an essential resource for human emancipation, and therefore, a crucial layer of any welfare architecture. However, for urban commons, the relationship with welfare systems is increasingly problematic.
Emerged as alternatives and critique to the extractivist and speculative dynamics of the neoliberal turn of capitalism, centred on care and the shared governance of resources, many urban commons continue to enjoy an autonomous operational space. On the other side, many others are increasingly supported by local administrations in ways that are not so different from those concerning the third sector. The very definition of the third sector easily allows including urban commons as well.
In the past, the increasing collaboration of the third sector with the state and market actors led scholars to define the welfare mix or third way or état social actif and to point out some critical aspects: such as a contractual and managerial approach, exclusivity, deresponsibilisation, increased tolerance of extractivist logics with no impact on their reproducing mechanisms.
Keeping the welfare mix season and its risks in mind, based on my current research project WELCOMIN, I will problematize the contribution of urban commons to the existing welfare infrastructure, in between the risk of losing their political capacity and the opportunity of transforming the current administrative culture.
My working hypothesis is that during a slippery moment such as the present one, and more in general, it is precisely the spatial nature and origin of many urban commoning initiatives that offers the conditions for preserving the political nature and agenda of urban commons, no matter their marginality and no matter the direction of existing transformative processes.
The presentation will be an occasion for reflecting on the state of the art of the knowledge process generated by the action research framework of the WELCOMIN project and its prospective methodology, against the background of a critical theoretical framework.
Bio
Verena Lenna is an architect and urbanist, having studied at IUAV University of Venice, KU Leuven, Parsons The New School, New York. Her research is primarily centered around the relationship between space and rights, how they shape each other and how urban and architectural projects can play a role in this relationship. She researched the dynamics of inclusion and individual and collective emancipation through participatory action research, and art and cultural projects in Rome, Venice, Milan, Brussels, New York and Athens. For her doctoral research, she explored the relationship between emancipation, property rights and the architectural project through the case of the Community Land Trust of Brussels. As an activist, designer, and researcher since 2011, she has gained expertise on the commons and urban commons by contributing to various projects, including the foundation of Commons Josaphat in Brussels (2012-2017) and a regional study aimed at designing urban policies to support urban commons in Brussels (2022-2023). In her current research project, WELCOMIN, she focuses on the transformative dynamics of urban commons, welfare, and the strategic use of vacant spaces for a more resilient city.