ABSTRACT
The notion of the commons or, as some authors put it, the common (singular) is at the centre of recent debates concerned with how societies manage natural and human resources. Specifically, the commons is conceived in contrast to the profit-driven arrangements of marketization and privatization which are hegemonic within contemporary neoliberalized societies. This chapter will interrogate the relevance of this notion from the perspective of urban studies and critical theory, showing how its different and even contrasting meanings are illustrative of the political, cultural and economic intricacies of capitalist societies in (late) neoliberal times. Our analysis considers the commons as a contested terrain in contemporary urban political economy: as a site of experimentation with post-capitalist cooperative relations; as a site of an anti-capitalist practice of resistance; and/or as a site of capitalist re-appropriation. This chapter will argue that the politics of the urban commons sheds light not only on multiple and even competing understandings and uses of the notion of the common(s), but also on the more general ambivalence of contemporary capitalism in its urban manifestation (Virno 1996).
