EDITORIAL
One characteristic of the postliberal era are initiatives that converge around the common, commons and the common good – that reclaim common wealth or refocus on the common good. The spectrum ranges from attempts to insulate the common good from democratic contestation by reinterpreting human rights as expressions of natural law to initiatives and social struggles for deprivatization, the transfer of economic resources and infrastructures into common ownership and their governance as commons according to principles of commoning. In this workshop we seek to explore this renewed interest in the commons and the common good starting from practical and intellectual projects that recenter collective practices in ways of living and provisioning. We explore their roots in and connections with past collective practices, and the theoretical grounding they may find in theology, philosophy, law and more broadly the social sciences.
QUOTES
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©Maurice Weiss / Ostkreuz
The liberal understanding of freedom - „my freedom ends where yours begins“ is a territorial understanding of freedom whereas the anarchist version of freedom is a freedom in togetherness: „my freedom depends on yours“
Theresa ForcadesThe liberal understanding of freedom - „my freedom ends where yours begins“ is a territorial understanding of freedom whereas the anarchist version of freedom is a freedom in togetherness: „my freedom depends on yours“
Theresa Forcades -
©Maurice Weiss / Ostkreuz
Commoning, understood as practice, is key to resisting authoritarianism.
Elise KisslingCommoning, understood as practice, is key to resisting authoritarianism.
Elise Kissling -
©Maurice Weiss / Ostkreuz
Where I am, we can become
Only together do I understand myself.
Alone with each other.
Daniel BognerWhere I am, we can become
Only together do I understand myself.
Alone with each other.
Daniel Bogner -
©Maurice Weiss / Ostkreuz
Why is this workshop so important now: Fascism. After a period of prolonged neoliberal privatization – not only of public services but of social life – we should not be surprised that a growing number of people yearn for that ‘surplus’ of togetherness – meaning, belonging, being and doing with others, but also material provisioning and safety, freedom in dependence.
Marija BartlWhy is this workshop so important now: Fascism. After a period of prolonged neoliberal privatization – not only of public services but of social life – we should not be surprised that a growing number of people yearn for that ‘surplus’ of togetherness – meaning, belonging, being and doing with others, but also material provisioning and safety, freedom in dependence.
Marija Bartl -
©Maurice Weiss / Ostkreuz
Commons is a bottom-up, relational, reciprocal, and processual initiative that bridges and reaches out to the non-negotiables.
Maki SatoCommons is a bottom-up, relational, reciprocal, and processual initiative that bridges and reaches out to the non-negotiables.
Maki Sato
ESSAYS
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On Community. Reflections from an Urban Commons PerspectiveIn sociology, countless efforts have been made to theoretically grasp the concept of community, and various approaches aim to take post-traditional phenomena of community building and practices into account.
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Towards a Commonist Constitution?How can there ever be a “Commonist” constitution – a constitution that does not leave the citizens forming the polity alone and on their own, but enables them to form meaningful relationships based on solidarity?
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Communio in and across time and space"Communio" – is this an issue of religion? The connection between religion and communion might not be obvious at first sight. Some people might think of religion as contemplation, of an individual religious practice.
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The Art of Commoning as a Labor of Love. The Role of Relationship and Intuition in Designing for Autonomy and the Common GoodIn 2013 a colleague and I at the German chemical company BASF formulated the following question: Why do people in business contexts tend to act against their own value judgements?
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Ambivalences of Communio and the Common Good – and 'Commoning'?In this short essay, I will firstly problematize the notion of communio in dogmatics and compare it to the problems that arise when referring to a common good or common goods in secular contexts...
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The Minimal ConstitutionMy contribution addresses the constant clashes between the legal orders of states and International Organizations (IOs). It is my argument that developing a conception of a global Minimal Constitution, would ameliorate that situation in terms of checks of power, and significantly contribute to the global common good – that is, to the commoning of the political matters that are important.
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Come to stay. The right to commune A new constitutioIn my book Gemeinschaft der Ungewählten [Unchosen Together], I I set out to argue for what might be called a fundamental right to community.
