DIY Urbanism and the Lens of the Commons: Observations from Spain

Abstract

A growing body of literature has been explicitly concerned with a range of microspatial practices that are currently reshaping urban spaces under the valuable denominator of “DIY urbanism.” However, there is still much work to be done if we are to take into consideration DIY urbanism's primary source and output: the commons. As such, Spanish DIY collectives have taken an explicit interest in building and reclaiming the urban commonwealth through participatory DIY interventionism. Therefore, this article assesses Spanish DIY urbanism through the lens of the commons and asks how the vocabulary of the latter might help us to further understand the DIY practice. In so doing, DIY urbanism will be put forward as “a field of possibilities” through three key features that inform commons theorizing: threshold spatiality, value, and legitimacy.

Hybrid Neighborness in Action: The Case of Kudrovo, Russia

“…Below I will demonstrate which social media are used in neighbors' interactions and how they contribute to the development of Kudrovo. Many of the discovered neighbors' initiatives may be analyzed within the framework of DIY urbanism that focuses on small-scale, bottom-up functional and esthetical modifications of the urban environment, although other approaches are developing too (Niederer and Priester 2016;Talen 2019;Volont 2019). Other initiatives by neighbors can be better understood through the prism of alternative economy, sharing economy, and collaborative consumption (Hamari, Sjöklint, and Ukkonen 2016;Kovács et al 2017) with an emphasis on peer-to-peer-based activities to provide goods and services aimed to shorten the chain of transaction by bypassing intermediaries such as retail chains and agencies.…”

Commoning stimuli: Sensory approaches to urban commons

“…Упркос литератури, која је, као што показује Луи Волонт (Volont 2019), дуго означавала просторна заједничка добра као крхке, нестабилне и често лиминалне појаве, примена приступа који препознају и наглашавају њихову динамичност помогла нам је да их додатно контекстуализујемо и досегнемо дубљи и вишеслојнији ниво разумевања. У контексту проучавања просторних заједничких добара, примена сензорне етнографије открива нам феноменолошку димензију интерсубјективности.…”

Edgelands of practice: post-industrial landscapes and the conditions of informal spatial appropriation

“…Yet, only limited attention is given to the contextual settings in which DIYs emerge and establish. Existing studies do touch upon how transformations and tensions at the city-or district-wide scale, such as economic recession (Talen, 2015), privatisation (Volont, 2019) or exclusion from decision-making (Fabian & Samson, 2016), may spark civic initiatives. However, as studies such as Corijn and Groth (2005) allude to, citizen action can very well be kindled by the cultural and material nature of their immediate settings.…”