Spatial Commons between Conviviality & Planetarism

Content

Forms of organisation for the sharing of resources – Based on studies of the shared use of alpine pastures in the Valais village of Törbel, Nobel Prize winner in economics Elinor Ostrom has derived eight principles for the sustainable management of commons. The alpine pastures are not without ownership, but are in the possession of a community that lays down rules of use, monitors them and also punishes those who violate them.

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teaching aims

Students work in small teams on different examples of urban Commons in Switzerland in order to start an Atlas of Swiss Urban Commons. On the first day there be an introduction to the seminar, its topic and the task. The seminar is thematically linked to a symposium whose contributions will be documented by the students as part of their research. Thus, on these two days lectures and talks will convey further information to the topic and the examples. The fourth day will be used for on-site field research. The fifth day will be used for analysis of the samples of the field research and bring together all the results.

Teaching forms

In the theory seminar we want to look at the present state of urban commons and examine the following questions: How has the sharing of commons influenced the development of the city and its culture, and architecture? What are urban commons, how do they produce or maintain and organize which common goods? Which forms of commons sharing have proven successful in cities? How does commons-sharing influcence the developpement of cities ?