The Challenge of the Commons in the Post-socialist Cluj (original) (raw)
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Debating the commons in post-socialist Bulgaria (op-ed)
The absence of solidarity with other causes and the persistence of neoliberalism in Bulgarian protests against the Forestry Act underline the need to adapt our understanding of "the commons" to new contexts. Neoliberal discourse and developmentalist ideology still control the imaginations of the majority of people from across the class spectrum.
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND STRUGGLE FOT THE COMMONS: THE CASE OF CROATIA
MA Thesis, 2015
The struggles for the commons reflect peoples answer to economic crisis, socially devastating austerity policies, transformations of property relations and shifts in balance of powers between capital and labor. Their importance is reflected in the new approaches and even transformation of state policies. It is important to investigate how current social movements can continue their action and can they pose alternative solutions to government. After this the question would be whether public pressure is enough or some other methods should be used, even invented or are they already there but do not have wider support. Nowadays in Croatia we have this blossom of various initiatives that are driven with the notion of the commons. Most of the initiatives are raising the issue of shortcomings of the representative democracy and some of them even try to introduce new practices in order to broaden the borders of social control. Through my empirical research on example of cases that are based on the struggles for urban commons I am trying to examine why they have emerged, what is political background, what is the role of the external factors on politics scene in Croatia and did they pose some new solutions to the issues that they have tackled. In addition, I have explored their strategies and what are relations between different social agents involved in those movements. I find it relevant to investigate whether if they had influence on policies/politics. It was very complex task to establish good framework for the concept of the commons because of the variety of sources and attractiveness of the topic, therefore I had a difficult task to decide what sources are relevant for this work. I have tried to present main directions and also to find relevant critiques in order to give a comprehensive overview of theories of the commons. This study will be situated in the field of political science but because of its complexity will also refer to other fields (political economy, philosophy, sociology, law). Some of the most relevant authors are Elenor Ostrom, Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt, Massimo De Angelis, Ugo Matei, David Harvey and many others, and I would like to single out Croatian authors and activists Danijela Dolenec, Tomislav Tomašević and Hrvoje Jurić. Regarding the concept of social movements my focus was not on the theories but rather on their use as a mechanism through which commons are being claimed. In addition, connection between social movements and commons is not sufficiently theorized. The main research question of this thesis was very broad because of the intention to get profound insight in the topic of the commons on the case of Croatia so it was constructed n a way to get answer on the following: What are the legacies of citizens’ initiatives in Croatia? I tried to find out whether they mobilized different social agents gathered around common ground and whether they established an effective network for sharing knowledge and resources. I claim that they have been successful, not only in networking but also in opening spaces for new political associations. Since I wanted to further investigate if there were some policy changes therefore my second question is: Did those initiatives cause changes in policies of the Republic of Croatia regarding the issues that they have tackled (referring to the issues of the environment and public spaces that are closely analyzed in the paper)? Considering the increased support of the public to the cause I assumed that social movements have triggered changes in policies regarding the issues that they have tackled. Regarding the struggles for the urban commons in the cases of Varšavska, Srđ je naš and Volim Pulu the initiatives have succeed to stop further attacks of the state and private investors on public spaces and have established successful cooperation. My research was based on interviews, not only with representatives of NGOs and non-formal groups but also with representatives of political parties so I could observe connections between different social agents. In order to find out whether initiatives had influence on some changes in policies it was required to examine the public documents and statements of relevant politicians regarding specific cases. From my interviewees I got good insight in the circumstances in Croatia and guidance in what direction my further research should go. To compensate possible omissions I have used a lot various resources such as video materials, interviews with relevant actors and blogs. The main obstacle was the period of internship which overlapped with summer vacation and most of the organizations were closed and people out of town. Additionally, when I was doing analysis of the cases I had to use alternative sources because of the media blockade of certain topics. Also, my intention was to give space to the sources that are being promoted by activists and to independent Medias and most of them are available on-line. In addition, many activist in Croatia have produced academic content on this topic, hence this literature kind of literature was very important for my study. So the research was based on the analysis of the different kind of literature. I found suitable to mention here the decision to use Croatian language instead of English translation of the names of initiatives because either they did not have official translation or the sense was significantly different when translated. Furthermore, there was a need to clarify use of the word commons in Croatian language in order for reader not to get confused. Common is replaced with common good meaning zajednička dobra because there is no equivalent to English version and what is challenging is that this concept of common good is not fortunate choice because it already has classical economic. This thesis has three chapters. First is theoretical chapter in which I have presented theoretical overview of the concept of the commons. Introduction reflects critiques to the current rights-based system built on capitalist tradition and opens a discussion can it be upgraded through commons concept. It gives an overview of theories of the common, presents debate on the issue of public/common good and gives definition of social movements but through concept of the commons. In second chapter I have presented main commons struggles in Croatia in the past ten years, specifically referring to the urban commons and through three most important cases, Varšavska, Srđ je naš and Volim Pulu gives an in depth analysis of these struggles. Last chapter is about local problems and the wider context so it reflects on the politics and possible alternatives. It gives an overall chronology of main political events and confronts environmental protection and economical trends. This research tries to contribute to existing theories and debates on some of previously mentioned issues. The additional aim of the study may be the implementation of the good practices in the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina regarding the struggles for commons.
Modernity, the Commons and Capitalism
British Journal of American Legal Studies, 2020
The modern way of life and reflected in modern political philosophy is directed by capitalist activity of both commodities and persons. Entities that do not have commodity value are worthless to the capitalist enterprise, regardless of any intrinsic value in themselves. Modernity is capitalist modernity. Modernity has given preference for objects/commodities over persons. This paper will argue for opening-up the landscape for alternative experiences to capitalism, as an attempt to move away from the capitalist enterprise. That is, be able to provide open space for people to use other than the buying and selling of commodities-where the commodification process breaks down and opens-up spaces for alternative experiences besides the capitalist experience. In other words, this work will attempt to serve as critique of Enlightenment philosophical discourse-that is, serve as a critique of the Age of Enlightenment serving as the foundational head of modernism-a plea for the rebellion against the quantification and mathematization of reality under modernist and industrial societies. It will use the modern landscape as the first effort to break free from the capitalist enterprise.
The Politics of the Commons: from Teory to Struggle
2018
In this collected work, you will find articles that seek to analyze the politics of the commons. The unifying element of the articles is that they address the potentials of the commons not only as an academic field of study, but also by their inherent potentials and prevailing limitations as regards the anti-capitalist struggle. In addition, these articles chiefly seek to follow the traces of the politics of the commons throughout the social movements in Turkey. This book aims to fill a gap for activists, who not only want to understand the world but also to change it, by providing experiences of social movements and conceptual debates.
The unemployable and the generic: rethinking the commons in the communist hypothesis
2017
One of the main points of contention in the current debates surrounding Marxism has been the problem of finding a concrete substrate which would orient the recuperation of the communist political strategy. Are there impasses in our contemporary society which justify the use of such a polemical notion as communism? Most authors currently involved with this debate agree that it is the problem of the " commons" under capitalism, which calls for a new theory and practice of communism. Where they disagree is on what the " commons " are and on how they exist within capitalism itself. The present contribution seeks to intervene on this debate and spell out the categorial recomposition of some fundamental aspects of Marxist critique of political economy implicitly at stake in Slavoj Žižek's theorization of the " antagonisms of the common ". Taking up the insight of Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt concerning the new centrality of the enclosure of the commons in contemporary capitalism, Žižek has developed an alternative—more sober—view of the structural subsumption of these common spaces to the dynamics of Capital, where the very communal dimension of these domains only appear as common after they have been privatized. To extract the consequences of this assertion, we will first reconstruct the Marxist theory of enclosures in a comparative reading of the first volume of Capital and Karl Polanyi's classic The Great Transformation. This will lead us to a broader discussion of the contemporary transformations in capitalism, with a focus on the crisis of value as primarily sustained by absolute surplus-value extraction. With an understanding of the idea of the commons and a historical background of our current predicament, we will be in position to follow Antonio Negri's reading of how the enclosure of the commons leads to a new communist strategy and also to criticize it, using Slavoj Zizek's alternative understanding of our contemporary social antagonisms. Following through Zizek's reading of the logic of enclosures, we come to the conclusion that, first, unemployment has the structure of an enclosure, one which is responsible for the very form of the work commodity—as it was already suggested by Fredric Jameson and others—and, second, that, from a certain philosophical perspective shared by thinkers such as Zizek and Badiou, this realization can lead us to an innovative recuperation of the Marxist theory of " generic being " , proposed by Marx in his Manuscripts of 1844.
The Commons, European Heritage of the Local Collective Action
2017
A major recent transition of Western society we face is characterised by denying the existence of common values, in favour of immanence of narcissism and self-realization. Commons represent not only one of bottom up evolved historical institutions all over Europe, to which a role of institutional infrastructure for socio-political change is attributed, but also a living practice of common values. A brief overview on the European situation evidence is presented with the accent on Slovenia. The future of commons is seen in promotion and support of the local critical reflexive dialogue in the frame of (intentional) learning. As environmental change (e.g. in terms of climate changes) and society change (e.g. in terms of migrations) are not 'linear process of predictable causality but a complex of choices in the lifelong learning', their practices all over Europe inspire further functioning, innovative responses and transmission of their tradition into the future. Summary 1 Introduction.-2 Conceptual Framing.-3 A General Overview of the Origins, Development and Changes with the Emphasis on Slovenia.-4 Framing the Commons into the Heritage Discourse.-5 Conclusions.
Global Discourse, 2018
Our main hypothesis in this paper is that in the current conjuncture, we are moving towards a ‘dominance’ of a ‘commons’ format for societal development. The commons format assumes a ‘third’ mode of development that indicates civil society and community as critical initiators and guardians of common value. The emerging commons model should be distinguished from both the regulation of capitalism by social-democracy, and state-centric Soviet types of socialism. Just as a full-fledged capitalist system could be seen as starting with the seed forms developed in the medieval city-states, so a future commons-centric society can be hypothesized from currently emerging commons-based seed forms. We believe that just as the revolutions bringing full-fledged capitalism were preceded by the development of capitalists and their seed forms, so a commons-based systemic change is necessarily the result of commoners developing their own seed forms. Therefore, the creation of a systemic ecology of th...
Omnia Sunt Communia: On the Commons and the Transformation to Postcapitalism
2017
In Omnia Sunt Communia, Massimo de Angelis offers a radical political economy, illuminating the steps necessary to arrive at a post-capitalist world. By conceptualizing the idea of commons not just as common goods but as a set of social systems, de Angelis shows their pervasive presence in everyday life, and he maps out a strategy for total social transformation. From the micro to the macro, de Angelis unveils the commons as fields of power relations—shared space, objects, and subjects—that explode the limits of daily life under capitalism. He exposes attempts to co-opt the commons, through the use of seemingly innocuous words such as “participation” and “governance,” and he reveals the potential for radical transformation rooted in the social reproduction of our communities, life, work, and society as a whole.
COMMONS, EUROPEAN HERITAGE OF THE LOCAL COLLECTIVE ACTION
A major transition of Western society we face for decades is according to one of its claimants characterised by denying the existence of common values, immanence of narcissism and self-realization (Gallagher, 2003 in Bahovec, 2015). Commons represent not only one of bottom up evolved historical institutions all over Europe, to which a role of institutional infrastructure for socio-political change is attributed (de Moor, 2008), but also a living practice of common values. As an institution and an ongoing process they are closely related to local community and share its basic functioning, evolved in history. Collective action studies (Ostrom, 1990 and others) but also global movements (see e.g. IASC). We argue that Commons are a living laboratory and a basin of heritage with particular value in their intangible characteristics e.g. cooperative mechanisms, maintenance of functional rules, organisational procedures and adaptations, all representing inclusive communication as part of community’s´ constant balancing of rights and duties among primary units, which are households and not individuals. Participatory experience enables evolution of responsibility (towards community and its resource), identity and attachment of members. Governance principles therefore take into consideration two-fold relationship, linking members into a community and linking community with its resource(s). Intergenerational transmission of these links and mechanisms of functioning was particular important in periods and frames of undemocratic regimes when rules in use kept Commons functioning invisibly, non-formally (Gatto, Bogataj, 2015). This way they fulfilled the basic community principle of self-sustenance. Some Commons declined, for example in Slovenia recently only 1/3 still function in comparison to pre WWII situation. A brief overview on the European situation evidence is presented with the accent on Slovenia. The future of Commons is seen in promotion and support of the local critical reflexive dialogue in the frame of (intentional) learning.