Urban Commons Research Collective

Exploring transformative potential of the commons in urban contexts

The Commons offer a relevant proposal on how to generate processes of social reproduction and ecological repair when the capacity to repair is in crisis, or under political and economic threat, as is the case today. These processes can be understood also as political processes which suggest how we may organise our lives together based on principles of care and collaboration.

In the urban context, commons raise the question of how resources are governed or managed in cities and, further, how inhabitants can lay claim to common goods without privatising or exercising public control over them.

This website host research on urban commons developed by a group of staff and doctoral researchers at the School of Architecture University of Sheffield together with other academics associated with this group via previous roles and ongoing collaborations.

The collaborative research process involved a series of events and workshops which conducted to the production of an Urban Commons Archive and an Urban Commons Handbook.