The Urban Commons Research Collective (UCRC) is a platform for collective thinking, research, and action on urban commons. We aim to foster plural knowledges, connect diverse geographies, and promote practices of co-learning and critical engagement around notions of commons and commoning. The collective published the Urban Commons Handbook with dpr-barcelona in 2022.

We launch this call for contributions with the aim of broadening our collective understandings of diverse forms of communal living, community stewardship, and collective organising by challenging the Western-centric notion of “the commons.” Our premise is that experiences of the commons exist within broader relational worlds, each shaped by unique worldviews, knowledge systems, and historical contexts, as reflected in the specific terms used to describe shared resources, communities, and sharing practices in different languages and localities.

The goal of this call is to engage with this diversity and expand contemporary debates around urban commons through a pluriversal perspective that acknowledges the rich tapestry of people, places, cultures, and knowledge involved in practices of sharing.

The project involves co-creating a dual publication consisting of a digital archive and a print volume. This dual publication will feature a relational cartography of urban commons, facilitating dialogue across languages and geographies. To populate it, we invite contributions that illustrate situated experiences of collectivity by capturing contextually rich narratives without imposing universalising frameworks.

Specifically, we seek individual entries involved in what Gutwirth and Stengers (2016) call ‘insurgent’ and ‘resurgent’ commons. That is:

• Contemporary amplifications of traditional modes of commoning that need to be defended and reclaimed (e.g., Al Awneh in Jordan, akin to imece in Turkey or mutirão in Brazil).

• Novel configurations and frameworks that share genealogies with historical ideas but emerge anew today (e.g., the Nguni and Bantu term Ubuntu used in the context of digital governance, or the Quechua sumaq kawsay, suma-qamaña in Aymara applied as political principles of “good life” in the Ecuadorian and Bolivian constitutions).

Contributors are invited to become co-weavers of this tapestry by proposing insurgent and resurgent concepts that are relevant for resisting and emerging commoning practices. These terms—rooted in diverse languages, contexts, and struggles—should open up ways of thinking that unsettle dominant frameworks and remap what the commons can mean across geographies. We ask contributors to reflect on how their proposed terms might resonate, challenge, or extend the four core aspects of the commons in mainstream literature: shared resources, community of commoners, governance systems, and the act of commoning.

Based on the contributions gathered through this expression of interest process, we will curate conversations on how different groups envision and practise forms of sharing across places and cultures. The resulting publication and online archive will foster an understanding of "plural commons" as a dynamic practice reflecting situated encounters across various contexts and languages.

• Submit expressions of interest: By 20 June 2025

• Co-curating workshop: 17 July 2025

• Feedback and guidance to authors: End of August 2025

• Collaborative writing period: October 2025–February 2026 

To express your interest in contributing to this project, please use this Google Form, that will ask you to address the following points:

• Situated term: Provide a word or phrase preferably in a language other than contemporary English that captures one or more aspects of what we label as the “commons” (e.g., shared resources, community, governance systems, or practices of commoning).

• Extended translation: Include a brief translation (maximum 50 words) into English that explains the meaning of the term.

• Broader context: Describe the cultural, historical, or social context within which the term exists or has existed (maximum 100 words).

• Discussion: Explain how the term relates to, challenges, or expands upon the four themes: community, resources, governance, and commoning (maximum 100 words).

• Position: a statement about yourself/your collective practice, what is your relation to the context, how do you engage with or operationalise the term (maximum 50 words)

• References: Include three relevant references that support your submission.

For any questions, please contact the Urban Commons Research Collective via email at urbancommons@sheffield.ac.uk