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Experimentingwith
Matina Kapsali* & Maria Karagianni**Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
AUTONOMA Towards the collective city1-2 July 2016, Athens
*[email protected], **[email protected]
From active citizenship to being-in-common
urban gardening
Introduction
•Urban gardening initiatives as a type of collectively produced space;•Not an a priori revolutionary re-appropriation of public space from the people;
•Social, political and environmental dimensions equally important for unpacking their urban imaginaries & everyday praxis;
Case studies: Kipos3 & Peri-Urban Gardening Group (PERKA) in Thessaloniki
Structure
•Theoretical framework: Urban political Ecology & Urban
Commons
•Research methodology
•Urban gardening initiatives in Thessaloniki
•Comparative analysis of Kipos3 & PERKA
•Concluding remarks
Urban gardens as commons?Theoretical framework
Urban gardening initiatives
Radical approaches:
•“spaces of contestation” | Eizenberg, Staeheli, Mitchell, Gibson
•“spaces of control” | Pudup
•“spaces of neoliberalisation” | Quastel
Multiple differences between initiatives & spacesNeed for a more holistic analysis
Theoretical framework
Urban political ecology
Urban commons
Urban political ecology
“environmental values drawn from a moral community have as much to say about the politics of the community as they do about the environment.”
Harvey, 1993
Axes:
• Environmental
• Political
• Ideological
• Social
Urban commoning
the common is “the opening of a space between beings (things), and the indefinite, maybe infinite possibility that this space opens, reopens, changes and modalises”
Nancy, 2010
• Political & social dimensions of space at the centre of analysis
Urban commons:
1. are produced;
2. present a set of ‘livelihood qualities over which rights are negotiated;
3. Include non-commodified practices; and
4. necessitate communities – the commoners
Unpacking the urban gardensThe imaginaries and everyday praxis of grassroots initiatives
Research methodology I
utopia as a “process of becoming, but one that is already geographically realisable within the interstices of everyday urban practice, [since this] constitutes precisely the foundation for transformative urban programmes”
Swyngedouw & Kaika, 2003
• Politics of possibility |
Gibson-Graham
• Everyday life as the level of analysis |
Lefebvre
Research methodology II
ImaginariesEveryday praxis
Research methods
Fieldwork: March-May 2016
• 5 semi-structured in-depth interviews;
• Document, and public & radio talks’ by participants collection & analysis;
• Announcements and publications by the initiatives or the local online & printed press;
• Participant observation.
Urban gardening initiatives in ThessalonikiA comparative analysis of Kipos3 & PERKA
• Formed: 2011
• Area: former military camp Karatasou
• Citizen-led initiative in collaboration with
the Cultural Club Karatasou
Peri-urban Gardening (Perka)
Self-sufficiency
Solidarity
Food quality
• Central goal: the communal cultivation
based on the principles of organic
farming
• Decision-making: assemblies
• Build solidarity network
A new relationship between
nature and the city “through the
principles of communality, self-
management, egalitarianism and
continued education, outside any political
party lines”
Kipos3 – City as a Resource
• Formed: 2014
• location: municipal area near the city centre
• Two architects and one agriculturist
• In cooperation with the Municipality of Thessaloniki
• Funded by Aggelopoulos Foundation through the programme
Aggelopoulos – Clinton GIU Fellowship.
• With the support of the School of Architecture and Agriculture
of AUTh
• Aim: “the transformation of
unformed spaces and urban
voids into spots for common
gardening and activities, driving
a broader impact on Greek city’s
everyday life”
Kipos3 – City as a Resource
“Reveal food in the core of the
crisis discussion, not as a means
of self-sufficiency only, but
mainly as a key tool for building
in a holistic way urban
resilience”
Organization
Knowledge production
Collaborating actors
PERKA
• Formal & informal ways
of knowledge production
• Informal resource of
learning
Kipos3
• Expert knowledge
“Focus on the importance of professional knowledge [...] in order to present spatial premises for a good life”
“Against the privatization, segmentation, selling out of the land and construction on it”
Municipality
“I love my city, I adopt my neighborhood”
Private sector
E.g. Agris Inc.
Civil Society
“[PERKA] is focused on the necessity for ideological and political background which was out of the team’s scope”
Kipos3
Active citizenship or being-in-common?
A new notion of citizenship that pushes the boundaries of formal decision-making processes and expands it towards citizens
Kipos3
• Expert-led initiative• New spaces in the city but
without challenging the existing framework
• Ameliorate life in the city and the city itself
• No strong sense of collectivism • Funded by private capital and
donations• Active citizens - not
commoners
PERKA• Collective action that challenge
the hegemonic social and spatial order
• Non-commodified practices• Environmental and political
scope • Decision-making through
assemblies• Being-in-common
Thank you!