Commons and Public Partnership
Legitimising a Commons Political Sphere
Commons and Public Partnership
Legitimising a Commons Political Sphere
Description
Commons and Public Partnership explores the creative production of the commons as a third political sphere that occupies the space between the household and the state.
Torange Khonsari demonstrates how the commons, as a third political sphere, can utilize cultural practices to mobilize communities and produce critical neighbourhood-based commons systems.
These practices and methods stem from local experiences that have brought a variety of contemporary societal issues to light. These issues range from citizen apathy and institutional distrust to a lack of knowledge about creative practices that can redefine political engagement from the ground up. The book repositions the neighborhood as a decentralized arena for political decision-making instead of traditional, centralized political systems. It argues for a commons/public partnership model over the private/public hegemonic model. A rich and engaging volume, it combines theory, methodology and practice to bridge disciplinary boundaries, from commons, urbanism, psychology, politics, anthropology and sociology, with practical design methodology.
Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1: NETWORK SOCIETY AND COMMONS
1.1 Network society as context
1.2 Autonomous commons
1.3 Neighbourhoods as space for production of commons
1.4 Local resources as common good
1.5 Chapter conclusion
CHAPTER 2: MOBILISING THE COMMONS
2.1 Obstacles to engagement
2.2 Designing Transformational Events
2.3 Transformational events as temporary commons
2.4 Design Model 1: Intimate Events - Temporary Commons that Host
2.5 Design Model 2: Gatherings as Public Events
2.6 Design Model 3: People's assemblies
2.7 Temporary commons for community mobilisation
2.8 Chapter conclusion
CHAPTER 3: MATERIALITY AND COMMON GOOD AESTHETICS
3.1 Common Good Cultural Objects
3.2 Introducing Aesthetic Quality for Cultural Commons
3.3 Common Good Aesthetic
3.4 Aesthetic Property: Tangible Materiality
3.5 The 'Actant': Objects with Agency
3.6 Aesthetic Attitude: Practitioner in Production
3.7 Chapter conclusion
CHAPTER 4: LEARNING AS CULTURAL COMMONING – LEARNING COMMONS
4.01 Framing learning in the commons
4.02 Expanding the Learning Commons
4.03 Civic Education and UK policy
4.04 Case Study: The School for Civic Action
3.7 Chapter conclusion
CHAPTER 5: COMMONS ORGANISATIONS
5.1 Why Commoning Practice?
5.2 Case Study: Public Works
2.03 Relational Theory for Commoning
2.03.01 Relational ethics of care
2.04 Knowledge and Knowing for Commoning
2.05 Boundary Commoning – permeable access
2.05.01 Knowledge beyond disciplinary boundaries/enclosures
2.06 Labour in Commoning – negotiation between reciprocal, waged and intangible labour forms
2.07 Commoning Through Design Intervention
2.08 Constituting/instituting the cultural commons
CHAPTER 6: CONCLUDING CHAPTER
Product details
| Published | 02 Apr 2026 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (PDF) |
| Edition | 1st |
| Extent | 256 |
| ISBN | 9781350446335 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Academic |
| Illustrations | 40 b/w images |
| Series | In Common |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
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