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« Sans Lendemain », est un film d’animation sur l’exploitation des énergies fossiles et des ressources naturelles et leurs conséquences sur la vie humaine sur la planète. Il est réalisé par Dermot O’ Connor et produit par Incubate Pictures. en 35 minutes, il aborde de façon très intelligible toute une série de problématiques liées à la croissance de notre système économique et à notre façon de consommer.

Réalisation : Dermot O’ Connor (35 minutes, 2012).<a href="http://www.idleworm.com">http://www.idleworm.com</a>
<a href="http://www.incubatepictures.com">http://www.incubatepictures.com</a> – <a href="http://www.angryanimator.com">http://www.angryanimator.com</a>

Information et documentation sur le site <a href="http://sansLendemain.mpOC.be">http://sansLendemain.mpOC.be</a>.

Titre original étasunien : There’s no tomorrow.
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/redirect?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DVOMWzjrRiBg&redir_token=PRF4kw9bwKfWe7SJ5S33XwpWSiZ8MTQwMTM2NzY0MEAxNDAxMjgxMjQw">https://www.youtube.com</a>

Version française 2013 due à l’initiative du groupe de Liège du mpOC, Mouvement politique des objecteurs de croissance (le mpOC n’est pas un parti politique).

Avec le soutien de :
Amis de la Terre Belgique, ASPO.be (section belge de l’Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas), GRAPPE (Groupe de Réflexion et d’Action Pour une Politique Ecologique), IEW (Inter-Environnement Wallonie), Imagine demain le monde, mpOC.

Traduction : Francis Leboutte.
Voix : Caroline Lamarche.
Mixage voix : Margarida Guia.
Sous-titres en néerlandais, allemand, anglais, français, espagnol et italien.

Some experiments for mapping the commons, from the definitions and brief descriptions of commoning actions or initiatives, with an instance of Chimere installed by Frédéric Léon at Brest. Chimere allows to place on a maps « points of interest » as defined by their geographic coordinates, text + multimedia documents (video , audio, images). Points of interest can be classified into categories organized by families. Maps are defined by selections of geographical zones and categories.
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<a target='_blank' href='http://remixthecommons.infini.fr/def-commons' rel="noopener noreferrer">Agrandir</a> – <a target='_blank' href='http://remixthecommons.infini.fr/def-commons/edit/' rel="noopener noreferrer">Participer</a>

The first idea, starting this experiment was to locate on a map hundred of definitions of the commons made since the Berlin Conference of 2010, and look at how to use this medium as a collective means of expression on the notion of commons. For the test, a douzen of definitions is placed on the map. The integration of all the hundreds of available definitions give more card provided. They are searchable by language. Sorting by tag does not exist. It is the next step we are chalenging. It will allow to make more visible the « issues » generated on the Remix The Commons website. The integration of this map in the site remix is done by widget in a blog post or page. Eventually, the card could be powered by mashup multimedia services.

Second experiment : <a href="http://remixthecommons.infini.fr/type-de-biens-communs">mapping documents of commoning practices</a> by category « types of commons » (only with the parents of the categories of Charlotte Hess’ classification, used on the web site Remix the Commons) . The maps can be made by geographical areas. <a href="http://remixthecommons.infini.fr/visages-des-communs">Here</a> a map of a few points in Quebec .

Chimere freely allows the addition of new points of interest by users via <a href="http://remixthecommons.infini.fr/type-de-biens-communs/edit" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a form</a> pretty simple. Each zone provides to the users a form that allows to classify points of interest by the category of the zone.

At this level, it would be useful to complete chimere with elements such as a device of tags of points of interest, a synchronization of files on the map, a synchronization of the points of interest in the catalog of Remix the Commons.

But to go further, it should be necessary to work on approaches of mapping the commons. The identification of resources is the first degree of a mapping of the commons. Should imagine mapping commons based modes of administration of resources, or models of distribution of property rights, or value systems attached to commoning practices and certainly other things.

Frédéric Sultan

Préserver et enrichir le vocabulaire des biens communs est un double enjeu pour le mouvement des communs. En élaborant des définitions, les acteurs des biens communs proposent une grille de lecture du réel basée sur le paradigme des biens communs. En outre cette démarche contribue aussi à lutter contre les phénomènes de « commons washing » qui émergent aujourd’hui. Le vocabulaire des communs est un bien commun.

<a href=""><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-2706" src="" alt="Nuage de mots Les biens communs sont sur toutes les lèvres" width="600" height="296" /></a>

Ce constat est à l’origine de l’<a href="http://wiki.remixthecommons.org/index.php/Glossaire_des_biens_communs">idée</a> de rassembler des termes assez largement utilisés par le milieu qui s’identifie à la défense des biens communs, dans un processus de définition dynamique et participatif.

Un tel processus devra certainement s’attacher à croiser des définitions émanent de points de vues différents, différents acteurs, différents domaines d’action ou disciplines, différents registres de définition, … et permettre leur mise en regard, leur commentaire afin que cela s’offre comme une possibilité d’appropriation dynamique du paradigme des communs. Les ressources documentaires en rapport avec chacun de ces termes, qu’ils soient bribes de conversations numériques ou bien réflexions approfondies ou créations originales, permettent d’explorer de manière plus ou moins approfondie en mettant aussi en évidence les variations au sein du réseau des acteurs des communs.

L’idée de glossaire des communs comme rassemblement d’un corpus de termes a des .

Cette démarche croise les initiatives du groupe d’étudiants qui avec <a href="http://www.sylvia-fredriksson.net">Sylvia Fredriksson</a>, Enseignante et designer, ont réalisé le <a href="http://www.enmi12.org/glossaire/ www.enmi12.org/glossaire/">glossaire des ENMI 2012</a>. Une <a href="http://www.encyclopetrie.org/experiment/glossaire-biens-communs/#contexte">première collaboration</a> s’échafaude autour des forums ouverts de <a href="http://villes.bienscommuns.org/">Ville en biens communs en octobre 2013</a>. Il s’agit de travailler sur les mots et les variations d’usage pour, selon Hélène Casado et Maxime Antremont, produire « un nouveau référentiel subtil, multiple et instantané. » et « permettre à un flux de médias de traduire un flux de pensées et de capter l’essence de la notion de biens communs aujourd’hui. »

Sylvia Fredriksson propose déjà quelques exemples intéressants de collages sonores de définitions avec <a href="http://notesondesign.org/biens-communs-10-defintions/">« Biens communs. 10 définitions »</a> réalisé à partir de sa <a href="soundcloud.com/sylviafredriksson">collection</a>. Cette démarche nous ramène aussi à l’origine de Remix The Commons et à la série Define the commons <a href="http://https://www.remixthecommons.org/?fiche=define-the-commons-i">I</a>, <a href="https://www.remixthecommons.org/?fiche=define-the-commons-ii">II</a> et <a href="https://www.remixthecommons.org/?fiche=define-the-commons-iii">III</a> réalisée à Berlin en 2010 à partir des interviews des participants à la<a href="http://p2pfoundation.net/International_Commons_Conference"> International Commons Conference (ICC)</a>.

Cette démarche revisite des initiatives plus classiques

How to equip the inhabitants with tools and methods that allow them to claim the consideration of a joint management of the social, cultural and economic resources of urban life? We believe that knowledge and mastery of legal mechanisms that allow urban commons to prosper, is an essential part of the answer to this question.

Atlas of the Charters of the Urban Commons is to provide socio-technical device to appropriate these tools, by articulating three actions:

1. achieve and maintain an open and interactive inventory of legal mechanisms dedicated to the implementation of urban commons.
2. provide a collective space for analysis and interpretation of the governance mechanisms of the urban commons that will produce a new shared knowledge among commoners in a cross-cultural perspective.
3. provide a space for exchange and mutual aid around the development of charters and legal instruments for the regeneration or creation of urban commons.

Analysis of the Bologna regulation :

<iframe style="width: 900px; height: 500px; border: 1px solid black;" src="https://framindmap.org/c/maps/198701/embed?zoom=1"> </iframe>

To contribute to this work, please use
<a href="https://framindmap.org/c/maps/198701/edit">framindmap.org</a>
(You need to be identified)

<a href="https://wiki.remixthecommons.org/index.php/Atlas_des_chartes_des_communs_urbains">More information</a>

Les voies maritimes, a beautiful idea of video about a project of protected sea area.

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By <a href="http://www.aires-marines.fr/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Aires-marines-protegees</a>

Three photographers have traveled for months Normand Breton Gulf stretching from the island of Brehat to Cape of La Hague and which is the subject of a proposed marine park. Rodolphe Marics, Denis Bourges and Xavier Desmier propose an X-ray of the marine space in three different and complementary points of view: aerial photos, hiking and underwater.

Les voies maritimes was born of a partnership between the Agency for Marine Protected Areas and the association Les champs photographiques.

Pour que l’appropriation sociale des biens communs soit émancipatrice, elle doit être ancrée dans un contexte géographico-socio-historique, partir des pratiques, traditions et réflexions locales passées ou contemporaines, tout en tenant compte des apports extérieurs et en étant ouverte à l’hybridation.

<a href="http://wiki.remixthecommons.org/index.php/Itin%C3%A9raires_en_Biens_Communs">Itinéraires en biens communs</a> est un outil interactif qui vise à permettre aux participants du projet remix biens communs de contribuer de manière créative à la définition et l’appropriation des concepts et des pratiques des Communs.

Définition

On parle de « bien commun » chaque fois qu’une communauté de personnes est unie par le même désir de prendre en charge une ressource dont elle hérite ou qu’elle crée et qu’elle s’auto-organise de manière démocratique, conviviale et responsable pour en assurer l’accès , l’usage et la pérennité dans l’intérêt général et le souci du ‘bien vivre’ ensemble et du bien vivre des générations à venir.

Cette définition est le fruit d’un remix de lectures, conférences, conversations et réflexions faites sur le sujet en partant d’une expérience personnelle, d’un contexte socio-culturel et finalement, d’un désir de communiquer et de contribuer à la culture en mouvement des biens communs.

A partir de cette définition, chacun peut suivre son chemin au long d’un texte, « <a href="http://wiki.remixthecommons.org/index.php/Itin%C3%A9raires_en_Biens_Communs#Le_bien_commun_est_sur_toutes_les_l.C3.A8vres">Les communs sont sur toutes les lèvres</a>« , dont chaque étape, sous la forme d’un hyperlien renvoie à des ressources directement utilisables par les participants. Itinéraire en biens communs est un lieu de d’échange dans lequel les participants peuvent enrichir la définition des Communs.

Tracés

Itinéraire en biens communs est une invitation à l’initiation par l’exploration de cette définition sous différents angles thématiques en fonction du contexte ou des rencontres interculturelles de co-création. On propose de faire l’inventaire et une typologie des différentes formes de biens communs matériels et immatériels. Les ressources, identifiées par une icône, se situent sur plusieurs niveaux allant de l’usage le plus simple (ou du plus accessible) au plus compliqué. Le texte est une ressource en même temps qu’un terrain de jeu.

On constate alors que ces biens communs réfèrent à un système de valeurs qui correspond à une même lecture critique de la réalité et à des pratiques sociétales (sociales, économiques, culturelles) qui sont attestées dans l’histoire ancienne autant que de nos jours.

Futur développement

Traduit en trois langues, le texte « Les communs sont sur toutes les lèvres » sera proposé comme trame pour une démarche de co-création collaborative d’oeuvres multimédia dans les réseaux des radios communautaires.

Collaborateurs/trices

Alain Ambrosi, auteur du texte et de la définition, et l’équipe de Communautique.

Financement

Itinéraire en biens communs est un projet basé sur la contribution volontaire.

Rôle de Remix Biens Communs

Itinéraire en biens communs s’inspire de Remix Biens Communs, et mobilise les outils de communication de la plateforme.

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Define the commons #2, is the second serie of 10 videos of definitions of the commons, (presented below), produced by Communautique and VECAM for <a href="http://wiki.remixthecommons.org/index.php?title=Definir_le_bien_commun">Define The Commons</a>. This serie has been gathered at the World Science and Democracy Forum, organized at Dakar in February 2011,

Presentation

<a href="http://wiki.remixthecommons.org/index.php?title=Definir_le_bien_commun&action">Define The Commons</a> is a multilingual project sharing definitions of commons. It is a process of collecting spontaneous and very brief definitions of the commons, made over several years and in different places around the world.

The project started in the first by interviewing people during the first <a href="http://p2pfoundation.net/Berlin_Commons_Conference">International Commons Conference</a>, co-organized by the Heinrich Böll Foundation and the<a href="http://p2pfoundation.net/Commons_Strategies_Group"> Commons Strategies Group</a>, in Berlin November 1 and 2, 2010. The conference organizers and participants were invited to define the commons with just one sentence in their own langage. Since 2010, many other definitions have been collected during other meetings.

Future developpement

Collection of the definitions of the commons continues. It is open to individuals and organizations contributions to define the paradigm of the commons. Publications and uses of the collection of definitions are in preparation, such as a mapping of the definitions of the commons. This project will also contribute to the creation of a glossary of commons through the identification of the terms used in the definitions.

If you want to participate, please sent an email to Alain Ambrosi (ambrosia/at/web.ca) or Frédéric Sultan (fredericsultan/at/gmail.com).

Collaborators

This initiative is an idea of Alain Ambrosi. Join contributors in the <a href="http://wiki.remixthecommons.org/index.php?title=Definir_le_bien_commun"> wiki-page</a>.

Funding

The project have been launched within the framework of the prototyping phase of Remix The Commons supported by the International Organization of Francophonie and the Foundation for the Progress of Human (FPH).

Contribution of Remix The Commons

Remix The Commons is the methodological and technical support of this approach.

<iframe loading="lazy" title="Tragedies, comedies and other dramas of the Commons by Bonnie McCay #IASC #Japan2013" width="880" height="660" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fbzUurdT_EY?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbzUurdT_EY">Tragedies, comedies and other dramas of the Commons by Bonnie McCay #IASC #Japan2013 – YouTube</a>.

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Rick Wolff: Cómo curarse del capitalismo El profesor Rick Wolff explica los motivos por los que el crecimiento ha adquirido tal protagonismo en nuestros sistemas políticos. La desigualdad es consecuencia de la forma en la que están organizadas las empresas. Asumiendo que pasamos una parte significativa de nuestras vidas en el trabajo, ¿qué pasaría si extendiéramos nuestro afán democrático al entorno laboral? ¿en qué cambiaría la sociedad si todas las empresas fueran más democráticas? ¿cuáles serían las implicaciones sociales y políticas de un cambio como este? Para saber más de Rick Wolff, visitad rdwolff.com/ Vídeo y edición de The extraenvironmentalist.com: http://bit.ly/1jXN0mt
http://bit.ly/1l9t6ba

Définir les biens communs #5, est la troisième série de courtes vidéos de définitions des biens communs produite par Communautique et Gazibo pour le <a href="http://wiki.remixthecommons.org/index.php?title=Definir_le_bien_commun&action">projet Définir les biens communs</a>. Elle est composée de 16 capsules vidéos présentées ci-dessous. Cette série à été réalisée à l’occasion de la conférence Internationale <a href="http://p2pfoundation.net/Berlin_Commons_Conference">ECONOMICS AND THE COMMON(S): FROM SEED FORM TO CORE PARADIGM</a> co-organisée par le <a href="http://p2pfoundation.net/Commons_Strategies_Group"> Commons Strategies Group</a>, les Fondations <a href="http://www.boell.de">Heinrich Böll</a> et <a href="http://www.fph.ch">Charles Leopold Mayer Pour le Progrès de l’Homme</a> et <a href="http://remixthecommons.org">Remix The Commons</a>, qui se déroulait à Berlin en mai 2013.

Présentation

<a href="http://wiki.remixthecommons.org/index.php?title=Definir_le_bien_commun">Définir les biens communs</a> est un projet multilingue de partage et de remix de définitions des biens communs très brèves et spontanées, collectées sur plusieurs années et dans différents lieux tout autour de la planète.

Le recueil des définitions a commencé lors de la première <a href="http://p2pfoundation.net/Berlin_Commons_Conference">Conférence Internationale sur les Communs (ECC)</a>, co-organisée par la Fondation Heinrich Böll et le<a href="http://p2pfoundation.net/Commons_Strategies_Group"> Commons Strategies Group</a>, à Berlin en 2010. Les organisateurs de la conférence et des participants ont été invités à exprimer, si possible en une seule phrase, et dans leur propre langue, leur définition des biens communs. Depuis 2010, un grand nombre de définitions ont été recueillies à l’occasion d’autres rencontres.

Futur développement

La collecte de définitions des biens communs se poursuit. Elle est ouverte à chaque personne et organisation qui le souhaite qui peut contribuer à la définition collective du paradigme des biens communs. Des publications et exploitations de ce fond documentaire sont en préparation, telle que la mise en place d’une cartographie interactive des définitions. Ce projet contribuera aussi à la constitution d’un glossaire des biens communs à travers l’identification des termes utilisés par les contributeurs dans leurs définitions.

Pour participer à ce projet envoyer un message à Alain Ambrosi (ambrosia/at/web.ca) ou bien Frédéric Sultan (fredericsultan/at/gmail.com).

Collaborateurs

Cette initiative est une idée d’Alain Ambrosi. Retrouver les contributeurs sur le <a href="http://wiki.remixthecommons.org/index.php?title=Definir_le_bien_commun&action"> wiki</a>.

Financement

Le projet a été réalisé dans le cadre de la phase de prototypage de Remix The Commons soutenue par l’Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie et la Fondation Pour le Progrès de l’Homme.

Contribution de Remix Biens Communs

Remix est le support méthodologique et technique de cette démarche.

Ritimo, Remix the Commons et le comité éditoral /ad hoc/ ont le plaisir de vous annoncer la prochaine parution, le 28 avril 2022, du nouveau numéro de la collection Passerelle « Finance et communs. Pour une réappropriation collective de la finance ».

<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-6746 alignleft" src="" alt="Visuel Soirée Passerelle n°23" width="395" height="331" srcset=" 342w, 607w, 768w, 940w" sizes="(max-width: 395px) 100vw, 395px" />

À l’occasion de cette parution, vous êtes cordialement invité·e à la présentation publique du numéro, le jeudi 28 avril à 18h30 dans le salon d’honneur du CNAM.

Lors de la présentation, nous compterons sur l’intervention d’Odile Lakomski-Laguerre  Université de Picardie Jules Verne), Olivier Laviolette (ex-scop Z), Benoît Borrits (chercheur indépendant), Louis-Nicolas Jandeaux (Oxfam France) et Isabelle Chambost (CNAM-Lirsa, membre du comité éditorial), pour présenter différents éléments abordés par ce numéro.

Date et horaires : Jeudi 28 avril – 18h30-21h

Lieu : Salon d’honneur du CNAM – 2 rue Conté (métro Arts et Métiers)
Premier étage (Métro : Ligne 3 ou 11 Arts et Métiers)

Pour plus d’information :* <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.ritimo.org/Presentation-du-no23-de-la-collection-Passerelle-Finance-et-communs-Pour-une">https://www.ritimo.org/Presentation-du-no23-de-la-collection-Passerelle-Finance-et-communs-Pour-une</a>

Depuis les années 1970, le système financier s’est détourné de son objectif premier, le financement de l’économie, pour répondre à un objectif devenu prioritaire : générer des bénéfices financiers. Mais peut-on penser une finance au service d’un projet de société radicalement différent ? Et à quelles conditions ? Ce numéro de la collection Passerelle se donne un objectif ambitieux : celui de décrypter, d’analyser, et d’expliquer les enjeux autour de la finance, et de la repenser au prisme des communs.

Tout d’abord, à quoi ressemblerait une finance gérée en commun ? Qu’est-ce que serait une « monnaie en commun », comment pourrait-on gérer la (les) dette(s) en commun ? Que compterait-on dans une comptabilité pour les communs, et quels effets concrets cela aurait-il sur les échanges économiques ? En changeant les termes du débat, en jouant sur les échelles et les niveaux d’acteurs, de précieuses pistes émergent pour initier (ou accélérer) un changement radical dans nos économies. Ce numéro pose ensuite la question du financement des communs. Depuis les Banques de développement communautaires brésiliennes jusqu’aux modèles de pérennisation de « l’entreprise en commun », en passant par les partenariats public-communs, comment changer d’échelle pour assurer l’expansion du « faire-en-commun » ?

Cette publication se veut dès lors une contribution à la rénovation de nos conceptions sur le système économique et financier à l’aune de la transformation la plus radicale : celle de l’auto-gouvernement de notre monde en commun.

Tous les numéros de la collection Passerelle sont téléchargeables gratuitement sur le site de la Coredem : <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.coredem.info">www.coredem.info</a> <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="http://www.coredem.info/"><http://www.coredem.info/></a>

Les exemplaires papiers de la collection Passerelle sont disponibles à la vente sur la boutique du site de *ritimo *: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.ritimo.org/Boutique">https://www.ritimo.org/Boutique</a>

Le 2 mars dernier, Marion Louisgrand et Marta Vallejo de Ker Thiossane, partenaire de Remix The Commons, ont organisé à Kédougou au Sénégal, un DEJEUNER EN COMMUN sur le thème de l’En-commun et du “vivre ensemble” autour de la question « Jusqu’où tu es chez toi ? ».

<a title="Par gbaku (Flickr [1]) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons" href=""><img decoding="async" alt="KolaNutsKedougou" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1d/KolaNutsKedougou.jpg/400px-KolaNutsKedougou.jpg" width="400" /></a>

Retrouvez une série de photos sur la<a href="http://www.ker-thiossane.org/spip.php?article147"> page web de Ker Thiossane</a>. Des émissions de radio ont été réalisées avec la radio communautaire. Enregistrement et des vidéos sont en cours de montage.

<a href="http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%A9dougou">Kédougou</a> se situe aux frontières du Sénégal, du Mali et de la Guinée. près du Parc national du Niokolo où vivent les derniers éléphants du Sénégal.

Le DEJEUNER EN COMMUN se passait dans le cadre du festival “La Nuit des Etoiles”, organisé par le Centre Multimédia Communautaire de Kédougou (CMC), dans le Jardin public de la commune, avec l’appui du collectif grenoblois Culture Ailleurs (<a href="http://www.cultureailleurs.com/">http://www.cultureailleurs.com/</a>).

Interview with Joan Subirats – Barcelona, April 20, 2017

Alain Ambrosi and Nancy Thede

The pro-independence government of Catalonia recently sparked a political crisis in Spain by proposing to call a referendum on independence by the end of 2017 with or without the approval of the central government. In contrast, « Catalonia in common » defines itself as an innovative political space of the Catalan left. Initiated by Barcelona in Comú a little less than a year after its election to city hall, the initiave was launched in October 2016. A short manifesto explained its raison-d’être and presented an « ideario politico » (a political project) of some 100 pages for broad discussion over 5 months which culminated in a constituent assembly last April 8.

This new political subject defines itself as « a left-wing Catalan organisation that aims to govern and to transform the economic, political and social structures of the present neo-liberal system. » Its originality in the political panorama of Catalonia and of Spain is its engagement with « a new way of doing politics, a politics of the commons where grassroots people and communities are the protagonists. » In response to those who see its emergence only in the context of the impending referendum, it affirms: « We propose a profound systemic, revolutionary change in our economic, social, environmental and political model. »

We interviewed Joan Subirats a few days after the Constituent Assembly of Catalunya en Comú took place. Joan is an academic renowned for his publications and his political engagement. A specialist in public policy and urban issues, he has published widely on the Commons and on the new municipalism. He is one of the artisans of Barcelona in Comú and has just been elected to the coordinating body of the new space named recently « Catalunya en comú ».

The Genesis of a New Political Subject

NT — Tell us about the trajectory of the development of this new initiative: a lot of people link it to the 15-M, but I imagine that it was more complex than that and started long before.

<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4740" src="" alt="Joan_Subirats_2013_(cropped)" width="423" height="526" />
<a href="">By Directa (youtube) [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons</a>

JS — At the outset there was Guanyem, which was in fact the beginning of Barcelona en Comú: the first meetings were in February-March 2014. Who was involved? this is quite simultaneous with the decision by Podemos to compete in the European Parliament elections in May 2014. Podemos organises in February 2014; Guanyem begins organising in February- March 2014 to compete in the municipal elections of May 2015.

Going farther back, there is a phase of intense social mobilisation against austerity policies between 2011 and 2013. If we look at the statistics of the Ministry of the Interior on the number of demonstrations, it is impressive, there were never as many demonstrations as during that period, but after mid-2013 they start to taper off. There is a feeling that there are limits and that demonstrations can’t obtain the desired changes in a situation where the right-wing Popular Party (PP) holds an absolute majority. So the debate emerges within the social movements as to whether it’s a good idea to attempt to move into the institutions.

Podemos chooses the most accessible scenario, that of the European elections, because these elections have a single circonscription, so all of Spain is a single riding, with a very high level of proportionality, so with few votes you get high representation because there are 60-some seats, so with one million votes they obtained 5 seats. And people vote more freely in these elections because apparently the stakes are not very high, so they are elections that are good for testing strategies. In contrast, here in Barcelona, we chose the municipal elections as the central target because here there is a long history of municipalism.

So this sets the stage for the period that began in 2014 with Guanyem and Podemos and the European elections and in May 2015 with the municipal elections where in 4 of the 5 major cities – Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia and Zaragoza – alternative coalitions win that are not linked to either of the two major political parties (PP and the Socialist Party – PSOE) that have dominated the national political scene since the return to democracy in 1977. And in the autonomous elections^{<a href="#cite_note-1">[1]</a>}, a new political cycle also begins, in which we still are. If we go farther back, to 2011 – there are a couple of maps that show the correlation between the occupation of plazas in the 15-M with the number of alternative citizen canadidacies at the municipal level.

So Podemos and all the alternative citizen coalitions all refer to the 15M as their founding moment. But the 15M is not a movement, it was a moment, an event. You must have heard the joke about the stranger who arrives and wants to talk to the 15M – but there is no 15M, it has no spokespersons and no address. But everyone considers it very important because it transformed the political scene in its wake . But what was there before the 15M?

There were basically 4 major trends that converged in the 15-M :
First the anti-globalisation movement, the oldest one, very interesting because a large number of the new political leaders have come out of it, with forms of political mobilisation different from the traditional ones.

Then there was the « Free Culture Forum » linked to issues regarding internet which was very important here in Barcelona – with Simona Levy and Gala Pin, who is now a municipal councillor – that is important because here digital culture, network culture, was present from the very beginning, something that didn’t occur in other places.

The third movement was the PAH (Platform for People Affected by Mortgages) which emerges in 2009 and had precedents with Ada Colau and others who organised « V for vivienda » (like the film « V for vendetta », but in this case vivienda – housing), an attempt to demonstrate that young people were excluded from social emancipation because they didn’t have access to housing. Their slogan was « you’ll never have a house in your whole f’king life ». And the forms of mobilisation were also very new, for example, they occupied IKEA because at that time IKEA’s advertising slogan was « the independent republic of your home », so they occupied it and slept in the beds there. So this was more youthful, alternative, more of a rupture, but then in 2009 with the creation of the PAH they started to try to connect with the immigrant sector and people who were losing their houses because of the mortgage hype, it was very important because it’s the movement that tries to connect with sectors outside of youth: the poor, immigrants, working class… with the slogan ‘this is not a crisis, it’s a sting’. So the PAH is very important because it’s the movement that connects with sectors of the population outside of youth: workers, immigrants, the elderly… For example, here in Plaza Catalunya in 2011 the only major poster rallying people who weren’t youth was that of the PAH.

And the fourth movement – the most ‘authentic’ 15M one – was that of the « Youth without future ». People who organised mainly in Madrid, typical middle-class university sector with post-grad studies, who suddenly realised that they wouldn’t find jobs, that it wasn’t true that their diplomas would open doors for them, they were in a precarious situation.

So those were the four major currents that converged in the basis of the 15M. But what made it ‘click’ was not just those 4 trends, but the fact that huge numbers of other people recognised the moment and converged on the plazas and overwhelmed the movements that started it. The most surprising thing about the moment was that those 4 movements – that were not all that important – were rapidly overwhelmed by success of the movement they started and new people who spontaneously joined. That was what really created the phenomenon, because if it had been just those 4 movements, if it had been like ‘Nuit debout’ in Paris where people occupied the plaza but without the sensation that people had steamrollered the leaders. So, when the plazas are evacuated, the idea becomes ‘Let’s go to the neighbourhoods’. So all of a sudden, in the neighbourhoods of Barcelona and Madrid, assemblies were organised where there was a mixture of the old neighbourhood associations that were no longer very active and whose members were older (my generation) and new people who brought new issues like ecology, energy, bicycle transport, cooperatives, water and a thousand different things and who created new spaces of articulation where people who had never thought that they would meet in the neighbourhoods began to converge.

I think this explains the re-emergence of municipalism that followed: people begin to see the city as a place where diverse social changes can be articulated on a territorial basis: many mobilisations are taking place in isolation, in a parallel manner and don’t have a common meeting-point. Water as a common good, energy transition, sustainable transport, public health, public space, infant education… All of a sudden there was something that brought people together which was to discuss the city, the city we want – David Harvey mentions in an article that the modern-day factory is the city. That is, we no longer have factories, the city is now the space where conflicts appear and where daily life becomes politicised: issues like care, food, schooling, transport, energy costs – and this creates a new space for articulating these issues that hadn’t been previously envisaged.

So I think this is the connection : 15-M as a moment of overwhelming, the end of a cycle of mobilisation – remember that there had been a petition of a million and a half signatures to change the mortgage legislation, that Ada Colau presented in the national Congress, where she accused the PP deputies of being assassins because of what they were doing – but that mobilisation had no effect in the law. A PP deputy declared ‘If these people want to change things, then they should get elected’. So people started thinking ‘OK, if that’s the way it is, then let’s get ourselves elected’. This is the initial change of cycle in 2014. So the 4 movements were present in the meetings of Guanyem and BComun, as well as some progressive intellectuals and people from other issue areas like water, transport, energy etc. That was the initial nucleus here in Barcelona – in Madrid it was different. There the Podemos generation had a different logic. Here, from the beginning, we wanted to create a movement from the bottom up and to avoid a logic of coalition of political parties, this was very clear from the outset. We didn’t want to reconstruct the left on the basis of an agreement amongst parties. We wanted to build a citizen movement that could impose its own conditions on the parties. In the case of Podemos it was different: it was a logic of a strike from above – they wanted to create a strong close-knit group with a lot of ideas in a very short period and as a result an electoral war machine that can assault the heavens and take power. Here, on the other hand, we foresaw a longer process of construction of a movement where we would start with the municipalities and after that, we’ll see.

So Guanyem was created in June 2014, 11 months prior to the municipal elections, with a minimal program in 4 points:

1. we said, we want to take back the city, it’s is being taken away from the citizens, people come here to talk about a ‘business-friendly global city’ and they are taking it away from the citizens, we have lost the capacity to control it, as the first point;
2. there is a social emergency where many problems don’t get a response;
3. we want people to be able to have decision-making capacity in what happens in the city, so co-production of policy, more intense citizen participation in municipal decisions;
4. moralisation of politics. Here the main points are non-repetition of mandates, limits on salaries of elected officials, anti-corruption and transparency measures, etc.

So we presented this in June 2014 and we decided that we would give ourselves until September to collect 30,000 signatures in support of the manifesto and if we succeeded, we would present candidates in the municipal elections. In one month we managed to get the 30,000 signatures! Besides getting the signatures on internet and in person, we held a lot of meetings in the neighbourhoods to present the manifesto – we held about 30 or 40 meetings like that, some of them small, some more massive, where we went to the neighbourhoods and we said « We thought of this, what do you think? We thought of these priorities, etc’. » So, in September of 2014 we decided to go ahead; once we decided that we would present a slate, we began to discuss with the parties – but with the strength of all that support of 30,000 people backing us at the grassroots, so our negotiating strength with respect to the parties was very different. In Dec 2014 we agreed with the parties to create Barcelona en Comun – we wanted to call it Guanyem but someone else had already registered the name, so there was a lot of discussion about a new name, there were various proposals: Revolucion democratica, primaria democratica, the term Comu – it seemed interesting because it connected with the Commons movement, the idea of the public which is not restricted to the institutional and that was key. It was also important that in the previous municipal elections in 2011 only 52% of people had voted, in the poorer neighbourhoods a higher number of people abstained and that it was in the wealthier neighbourhoods where a larger proportion of people had voted. So we wanted to raise participation by 10% in the poor neighbourhoods more affected by the crisis and we thought that would allow us to win. And that was what happened. In 2015, 63% voted, but in the poor areas 40% more people voted. In the rich areas, the same people voted as before.

So it was not impossible to think we could win. And from the beginning the idea was to win. We did not build this machine in order to participate, we built it in order to win. We didn’t want to be the opposition, we wanted to govern. And as a result, it was close, because we won 11 of 41 seats, but got the most votes so we head the municipal council, the space existed. From the moment Guanyem was created in June 2014, other similar movements began to be created all over Spain – in Galicia, in Andalucia, in Valencia, Zaragoza, Madrid… One of the advantages we have in Barcelona is that we have Ada Colau, which is a huge advantage, because a key thing is to have an uncontested leader who can articulate all the segments of the movement – ecologists, health workers, education professionals…. If you don’t have that it’s very difficult, and also the sole presence of Ada Colau explains many things. In Madrid they found Manuela Carmena, who is great as an anti-franquista symbol, with her judicial expertise, very popular but who didn’t have that tradition of articulating movements, and as a result now they are having a lot more problems of political coordination than here.

A New Political Subject for a New Political Era

AA — So now Catalunya en comu defines itself as a new political space on the left for the whole of Catalonia. But in recent Catalan history that’s nothing really new: there have been numerous political coalitions on the left, such as the PSUC^{<a href="#cite_note-2">[2]</a>} in 1936 followed by many others. So what is different about this initiative?

JS — If we open up our perspective and look at things more globally, I think that what justifies the idea that this is a new political space is the fact that the moment is new, we’re in a new phase so it’s very important to understand that if this new political moment reproduces the models and the conceptual paradigms of the old left and of the Fordism of the end of the 20th century, we won’t have moved ahead at all. The crisis of social democracy is also a crisis of a way of understanding social transformation with codes that no longer exist. As a result the measure of success of this new political space is not so much in to what extent it can bring together diverse political forces, but rather its capacity to understand this new scenario we find ourselves in – a scenario where digital transformation is changing everything, where we no longer know what ‘labour’ is, where heterogeneity and social diversity appear as factors not of complexity but of values, where the structure of age no longer functions as it used to – where everything is in transformation, so we can no longer continue to apply ideas – to use a phrase coined by Ulrich Beck – ‘zombie concepts’, living dead, no?, we forge ahead with our backpacks full of 20th-century concepts, applying them to realities that no longer have anything to do with them. It’s easy to see the defects of the old, traditional concepts, but it’s very difficult to construct new ones because we don’t really know what is happening nor where we are headed. The example of the debate in France between Valls and Hamon – at least, I read the summary in Le Monde, where Valls maintained that it would be possible to come back to a situation of full employment and Hamon said that is impossible, that it’s necessary to work towards the universal basic income; in the end, Hamon is closer to the truth than Valls, but Hamon isn’t capable of explaining it in a credible way – and it is very difficult to explain it in a credible way.

Here, we are working at one and the same time on the Commons and the non-institutional public sphere, we are demanding greater presence of the public administration when probably it wouldn’t really be necessary, but since we don’t have a clear idea of how to construct this new thing, we are still acting sort of like slaves of the old. So that’s where I think the concept of the Commons, of the cooperative, the collaborative, new ideas regarding the digital economy, are more difficult to structure, because we’re also conscious that capitalism is no longer only industrial or financial but now it’s digital capitalism, and it controls all the networks of data transmission and at the same time the data themselves, probably the wealth of the future. So, sure we can do really interesting things in Barcelona, out of Barcelona en Comun, but we have GAFAM (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft), and GAFAM has its own logics and that complicates things. So we have to create a new political subject – and it’s obvious that we need something new – but what isn’t so obvious is what are the concepts we need to create this new subject. So if you look at the documents published by Un Pais en Comu^{<a href="#cite_note-3">[3]</a>} that’s what you’ll see: a bit of different language, a different way of using concepts, but at the same time a trace of the heritage of the traditional left. The journal ‘Nous Horitzons’ has just published a new issue on ‘Politics in Common’^{<a href="#cite_note-4">[4]</a>} which brings together a lot of these elements. The impression that some of us had in the assembly the other day in Vall d’Hebron (the inaugural assembly of the movement) was that the old ways were still weighing us down, that there was a difficulty to generate an innovative dynamic.

NT — That was clear in the composition of the audience.

JS — Yes, well, the Podemos people weren’t there, of course… they didn’t come for various reasons, because probably not everybody was in agreement with Albano-Dante^{<a href="#cite_note-5">[5]</a>} but they saw there was a lot of disagreement and so they preferred not to come, and that’s a type of public that, as well as filling the hall, also changes the type of dynamic – so it was more the traditional-style organisations that were there (Iniciativa or EUIA^{<a href="#cite_note-6">[6]</a>}), there was more of the old than the new probably. Perhaps that’s inevitable, but what we have to do now is to see if we can change that dynamic.

AA — When one reads the ‘Ideario politico’ (the political project of Un Pais en Comu) it’s a sort of lesson in political economy, political philosophy as well, but also a vast programme, and the left has never put forward this type of Commons-inspired programme before, be it in Catalunya or in Spain or probably internationally. How do you see its contribution in the context of the Commons ecosystem? There have been experiences of the Commons without the Commons label, as in Latin America …

JS — Yes, in Catalunya the anarcho-sindicalist movement…

AA — Of course, but more recently, the idea of ‘Buen Vivir’ …

JS — Yes, but when you go to Latin America and you talk about that, it all revolves around the State. But here, we try not to be state-centric. We are trying to avoid the idea that the only possible transformation needs to depend on the State.

AA — But in the ‘Ideario’ a lot of discussion is devoted to public services as well, this implies that the State has to exist. And in the Commons vocabulary there is the concept of the ‘partner-state’, but it doesn’t appear in the Ideario…

JS — Yes, there’s a margin there: the resilience of the new politics depends more on the capacity to create ‘muscled’ collective spaces – public, collective, common – than on the occupation of the institutions. But without the occupation of the institutions, it’s very difficult to construct those spaces. The example that comes to mind for me is from Copenhagen: there it was the cooperatives of the workers’ unions that built the big housing coops that exist now; also, the municipal government when the left was in power built a lot of public housing; then when a right-wing government came to power, it privatised all the public housing but it couldn’t privatise the cooperatives. So in the end, things that are strictly state-based are more vulnerable than when you build collective strength. So if we are able to benefit from these spaces in order to build ‘collective muscle’, using our presence in the institutions, this will end up being more resilient, more stable over time than if we put all our eggs in the State basket. So the Barcelona city government has civic social centres that are municipal property, but what is important is to succeed in ensuring that these centres are controlled by the community, that each community make them its own despite the fact that the property is officially that of the municipality, but they must be managed through a process of community management. So you need to build in the community a process of appropriation of institutions that ends up being stronger than if it were all in the hands of the State.

Now we are discussing citizen heritage, how the city government can use its property – houses, buildings – and it can cede them for a certain period in order to construct collective spaces. For example, 8 building sites that belong to the municipality have been put up for auction on 100-year leases for community organisations to build housing cooperatives. This doesn’t take property away from the public sphere and at the same time it generates collective strength. But a certain sector of the political left here, the CUP, criticises this as privatisation of public space. They think Barcelona en Comun should build public housing instead, state-owned housing. That’s a big difference. And people are aware of that, but at the same time there are doubts about whether this makes sense, whether there is sufficient strength within the community so that this can work. Or, for example, the most common criticism is that “you have an idea of the public, the collective, the Commons, that implies capacities in the community that are only present in the middle classes that have the knowledge, the organisational capacity… so it’s a very elitist vision of the collective because the popular sectors, without the backing of the State, won’t be able to do this. » Well, we’re going to try to combine things so it can work, but we don’t want to keep converting the public into the ‘state’.

Nancy Fraser wrote an article on the triple movement – looking at Polanyi’s work on the ‘double movement’ in the Great Transformation, that is the movement towards mercantilisation, and the opposite movement it stimulated towards protection. Polanyi talks about the confrontation of these 2 movements in the early 20th century, and the State – in its soviet form or in its fascist form – as a protectionist response of society which demands protection when faced with the uncertainty, the fragility the double movement engenders. Nancy Fraser says that all that is true, but we’re no longer in the 20th century, we’re in the 21st century where factors like individual emancipation, diversity, feminism are all very important – so we shouldn’t be in favour of a protectionist movement that continues to be patriarchal and hierarchical. We need a movement for protection that generates autonomy – and there resides what I think is one of the keys of the Commons movement. The idea of being able to get protection – so, a capacity of reaction against the dynamics of the market attacks – without losing the strength of diversity, of personal emancipation, of feminism, the non-hierarchical, the non-patriarchal, the idea that somebody decide for me what I need to do and how I will be protected. Let me self-protect myself too, let me be a protagonist too of this protection. And this is contradictory with the state-centric tradition.

A Commons Economy, Participation and Co-production of Policy

AA — The first theme of the ‘Ideario’ is the economy – you are an economist, amongst other things – how do you see this proposal in terms of the Commons? For example, there is a lot of discussion now about ‘open cooperativism’, etc. What you were saying about the cooperative movement here, that it is very strong but not sufficient…

JS — In some aspects no. For example, the city wanted to open a new contract for communications (telephone, internet) – now there are the big companies Telefonica, Movistar, Vodafone, Orange, etc: there’s a cooperative called ‘Som Connexion’ (We are connection)- or ‘Som Energia’ (We are energy) that’s a lot bigger – it has 40,000 members – but these cooperatives, it would be fantastic if the city were to give them the contract for energy or for communication, but they aren’t capable of managing that at the moment. So if they take it, we’d all have big problems: faulty connections, lack of electrical power – because they’re growing for sure but they don’t yet have the ‘muscle’, the capacity they need to take this on.

So we have to continue investing in this, it’s not going to take care of itself. On the other hand, in other areas, like home services for the elderly, we do have very strong cooperatives, Abacus for example is a cooperative for book distribution that has 800 000 members, so that is a coop that’s very powerful, and there are others. But in general, the more powerful the coop, the less politicised it is – they tend to transform themselves into big service companies. But now they are understanding that perhaps it would be in their interest to have a different vision; there has been a very politicised movement in the grassroots level coops that is contradictory with the entrepreneurial trend in the big coops. So we’re in this process right now: yes, there are very big, very strong coops and there are also smaller, more political ones but they don’t have sufficient muscle yet.

AA — When we look at issues of participation, co-production of policy and such, it is also a question of culture, a culture of co-production that doesn’t exist. In the neighbourhoods, yes there is a trend to revamping participation, but when we talk to people in the local-level committees they say ‘Sure, people come to the meetings, but because they want a tree planted here…’ and they don’t have that vision of co-creation. So first there has to be a sort of cultural revolution ?

JS — There are places where there has been a stronger community tradition that could well converge with this. Some neighbourhoods like Roquetes for example, Barceloneta or Sants, have very strong associational traditions. If you go to Roquetes to the meeting of the community plan, everybody is there: the people from the primary medical services centre, the doctors, the schools are there, the local police, the social workers – and they hold meetings every 2 weeks and they know everything that goes on in the area, and they transfer cases amongst themselves: “we detected this case, how do we deal with it?” etc. The community fabric in those neighbourhoods functions really well. So what can you add to that fabric so that it can go a bit further? On the other hand, in other neighbourhoods like Ciutat Meridiana, in 5 years 50% of the population has changed, so it’s very difficult to create community where the level of expulsion or change is so high. In Sants, in Ca Batlló, there was a very interesting experience where people want to create a cooperative neighbourhood – it’s a bit polemical – they want to create a public school without using public funds, instead using money from the participants themselves, because the coop tradition in Sants is very anarchist, libertarian – so they promote the idea of a public school, open to all, but not using public funds. And it would have its own educational philosophy, that wouldn’t have to submit to standard educational discipline. And groups have appeared in different neighbourhoods dedicated to shared child-raising where there are no pre-schools for children between 0 and 3 years, or people prefer not to take the kids to public pre-schools because they find them too rigid, so they prefer generating relationships amongst parents. So what should the role of the city government be with respect to such initiatives? Should it facilitate or not? There’s a debate about how to position the municipality with respect to these initiatives that are interesting but then when, inside Barcelona en Comú or Catalunya en Comú, the person who is in charge of these issues comes with a more traditional union perspective and says “This is crazy, what we need to do is to create public schools with teachers who are professional civil servants. These experiments are fine for gentrified zones, but in reality…’” And they are partly right. So we’re in that sort of situation, which is a bit ambivalent. We’re conscious that we need to go beyond a state-centric approach, but at the same time we need to be very conscious that if we don’t reinforce the institutional role, the social fragilities are very acute.

The Commons and Issues of Sovereignty, Interdependence and the « Right to Decide »

AA — Another high-profile issue is that of sovereignty. The way it’s presented in the Ideario is criticised both by those who want a unified Spain and by those who want Catalan independence. Sovereignty is simply another word for independence in the view of many people. But the way it’s presented in the Ideario is more complex and comprehensive, linked to autonomy at every level …

JS — Exactly: it’s plural, in lower case and plural: sovereignties. The idea is a bit like what I said earlier about the city, that we want to take back the city. We want to recover the collective capacity to decide over what affects us. So it’s fine to talk about the sovereignty of Catalonia, but we also need to talk about digital sovereignty, water sovereignty, energy sovereignty, housing sovereignty – sovereignty in the sense of the capacity to decide over that which affects us. So we don’t have to wait until we have sovereignty over Catalonia in order to grapple with all this. And this has obvious effects: for example, something we are trying to develop here: a transit card that would be valid on all forms of public transit – like the “Oyster” in London, and many other cities have them – an electronic card that you can use for the train, the metro, the bus: the first thing the Barcelona city government did on this was to ask the question “Who will own the data? “. That’s sovereignty. The entity that controls the data on who moves and how in metropolitan Barcelona has an incredible stock of information with a clear commercial value. So will it belong to the company that incorporates the technology? or will the data belong to the municipality and the municipality will do with it what it needs? At the moment, they are installing digital electricity metres and digital water metres: but to whom do the data belong? because these are public concessions, concessions to enterprises in order that they provide a public service – so who owns the data?

This is a central issue. And it is raised in many other aspects, like food sovereignty. So, we want to ensure that in the future Barcelona be less dependent on the exterior for its food needs, as far as possible. So you need to work to obtain local foodstuffs, control over the products that enter – and that implies food sovereignty, it implies discussing all this. So, without saying that the sovereignty of Catalonia isn’t important, we need to discuss the other sovereignties. Because, suppose we attain the sovereignty of Catalonia as an independent state, but we are still highly dependent in all the other areas. We need to confront this. I don’t think it’s a way of avoiding the issue, it’s a way of making it more complex, of understanding that today the Westphalian concept of State sovereignty no longer makes much sense. I think we all agree on that. We are very interdependent, so how do we choose our interdependencies? That would be real sovereignty, not to be independent because that’s impossible, but rather how to better choose your interdependencies so that they have a more public content.

AA — Talking of interdependence, there is the issue as well of internationalism. Barcelona en Comú puts a lot of emphasis on that, saying ‘There is no municipalism without internationalism’ etc. From the very outset of her mandate, Ada Colau in 2015 in her inaugural speech as mayor said that ‘we will work to build a movement of cities of the Mediterranean’, and as time goes on the approach is becoming clearer, for example with the participation of Colau and the vice-mayor Gerardo Pisarello in the major international city conferences. What do you see as the importance of this internationalism within the Commons ecosystem?

JS — There are 2 key aspects for me. First, cities are clearly the most global political space and zone of social convergence that exists. Apparently when we talk about cities we’re talking about something local, but cities are actually very globalised. Benjamin Barber wrote a book about ‘Why Mayors should govern the world’. And he set out an example I think is very good: if the mayor of Montreal meets with Ada and the mayor of Nairobi and the mayor of Santiago de Chile and the mayor of say Hong-Kong, after 5 minutes together they’ll all be talking about the same things. Because the problems of cities are very similar from one place to another despite their different sizes. Questions of energy, transport, water, services, food… If we try to imagine that same meeting between Heads of State, the complexity of the political systems, cultural traditions, constitutional models and all will mean that the challenge of coming to a common understanding will be much more complex. That doesn’t mean that cities are the actors that will resolve climate change, but certainly the fact that Oslo, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Barcelona and Paris agree that in 2025 there will no longer be cars circulating that use diesel will have more impact than a meeting of Heads of State. With AirBnB Barcelona is in constant confrontation, the city has fined them 600 000 euros, but Barcelona on its own can’t combat AirBnB. But New York, Paris, London, Amsterdam and Barcelona have come to an agreement to negotiate jointly with AirBnb: those 5 cities together can negotiate with them. But it isn’t the problem for States, it’s much more a problem for cities than for States. And AirBnB uses digital change to enter spaces where there is a lack of precision – it’s what happens too with Uber, Deliveroo and other platforms of so-called ‘collaborative economy’, which is really extractive economy, but which use the reglamentary voids. The people who work for Uber or Deliveroo aren’t employees, they are independent entrepreneurs but they work in 19th century conditions. Tackling this problem from the level of the city can produce new solutions.

I think when we decided in 2014-2015 to attempt to work at the municipal level in Barcelona, we were aware that Barcelona isn’t just any city: Barcelona has an international presence and we wanted to use Barcelona’s international character to exert an influence on urban issues worldwide. Ada Colau participated in the Habitat conference in Quito in October 2016, before that in the meeting of local authorities in Bogota, she is now co-president of the World Union of Municipalities. So there’s an investment that didn’t start just with us but that started in the period when Maragall^{<a href="#cite_note-7">[7]</a>} was mayor, a very high investment by Barcelona in participating in this international sphere of cities. This reinforces Barcelona in its confrontations with the State and with private enterprise as well. It plays an important role. There is an international commission within Barcelona en Comú, they are constantly working with other world cities – they have been in France, they have a strong link with Grenoble and will be going to a meeting of French cities in September to talk about potential collaboration, they often go to Italy, they’ve gone to Belgrade, to Poland. In June they’re organising a meeting of Fearless Cities, with the participation of many mayors from major cities in Europe and around the world.
So there is a very clear vision of the global aspect. So the global dimension is very present, and at the level of Spain as well. The problem there is that there is political interference, for example in Madrid, which is very important as a city, but within the municipal group “Ahora Madrid” they’re very internally divided, so sometimes you speak to one and the others don’t like it. We have really good relations with Galicia: A Coruña and Santiago de Compostela, also with Valencia, but Valencia also has its own dynamic. Zaragoza. Each city has its own dynamic, so sometimes it’s complicated to establish on-going relations.

AA — What about Cadiz?

JS — Of course, Cadiz is also part of this trend, but the group there is part of the Podemos anti-capitalist faction, so there are nuances.

NT — You mentioned 2 points regarding internationalism…

JS — Yes, first there was the general global perspective on cities and the second is Barcelona’s own concrete interest. So the first is more global, that is, any city in the world today has many more possibilities if it looks at its strategic global role and if it wants to strengthen its position, it has to work on the global level. In the case of Barcelona specifically, there is also a will that’s partly traditional, because it was begun by Maragall, you have to remember that here in Barcelona there are 10 districts, and during the war of the Balkans, Maragall created District 11, which was Sarajevo: city technicians went to Sarajevo to work with them, and still today there are municipal technicians who travel regularly to Gaza to work there, or with La Havana – in other words there’s a clearly established internationalist stance in the municipality. Also, the headquarters of the World Union of Local Governments is in Barcelona. The international headquarters of Educating Cities is in Barcelona, so there has constantly been a will to be present on the international scene since Maragall, and now this is continuing but with a new orientation as well. Perhaps there used to be the idea of exporting the Barcelona model, branding Barcelona, but that is no longer the case.
There’s very intense organisation globally, probably if Ada accepted all the invitations she receives, she’d be travelling all the time.

AA — Coming back to the issue of sovereignty vs independence and “the right to decide”, how does this play out?

JS — The issue of independence is internally very complex with different positions. I think there is a general agreement on 3 things, ie:

1. Catalonia has its own demos and therefore is a political subject which must be recognised,
2. it has to be able to decide how to articulate itself with the other political subjects in Spain and in Europe, it has to have the right, the capacity to decide;
3. this requires the construction of a State of its own.

It is on the fourth point that we are not in agreement: whether that State should be independent or whether it should be in some way linked, allied, confederated with the rest of the Iberian Peninsula or with Europe. These 3 initial points are sufficiently important and they are the basis for the fact that Catalunya en Comú or Barcelona en Comú is part of the broad sovereigntist space in Catalonia. What it isn’t part of is the independentist space in Catalonia. Despite the fact that I would say some 30-40% of the members are pro-independence, but the rest not. And that is an issue which divides us. But what we are trying to do is to work out this debate on the basis of our own criteria, not on those of other movements. The criteria of the others are ‘you are independentist or you are not independentist’. Our own criteria are: yes, we are sovereigntists, we discuss sovereignties and we’ll see. Since we agree on what is the most important (that is – an autonomous political subject, the right to decide, an autonomous State), let’s discuss how we can articulate. We have fraternal relations with 4 million people in the rest of Spain who agree with us on the first 3 criteria. So the key question probably would be: Does Catalonia want to separate from the rest of Spain or from this Spain? The standard response would be “We have never known any other. We’ve always seen the same Spain, so there is no other Spain”. So the debate we can have is over “Yes, another Spain is possible”. Sort of like the debate right now over whether to leave Europe: do we want to leave Europe of leave this Europe? But is another Europe possible or not?

The Challenges of Scale

NT — I am struck by the fact that every time we refer to the initiative of Catalunya en Comú, you respond by giving the example of what’s happening in Barcelona: do you see Barcelona as the model for Un Pais en Comú?

JS — No, it’s not that it’s the model, there is even some reticence within Barcelona en Comú that this new political initiative may have negative consequences for Barcelona en Comú. The Barcelona in Comú experiment has worked really well: within BeC political parties continue to exist (Podemos, Iniciativa, EUIA, Guanyem) and all agree that it’s necessary to create this subject, because it’s clear – there’s a phrase by a former mayor of Vitoria in the Basque country who said “Where my capacities end, my responsibilities begin” – that is, clearly, cities are developing roles that are more and more important, but their capacities continue to be very limited and especially their resources are very limited – so there’s an imbalance between capacities and responsibilities. Between what cities could potentially do and what they really can do. Refuge-cities – a thousand things. So within Barcelona en Comú there is an understanding of the interest of creating Catalunya en Comú in order to have influence in other levels of government. And to present candidates in elections in Spain with En Comú Podem because to be represented in Madrid is also important. But of course, sometimes this expansion can make us lose the most original aspect, that is the emphasis on municipalism, in the capacity to create these spaces – so there’s a certain tension. And obviously, when you go outside Barcelona in Catalonia, the local and territorial realities are very different, you find… you no longer control what kind of people are joining and so you can end up with surprises – good and bad ones – so there are some doubts, some growing pains. You have to grow, but how will that affect what we have so far? our ways of working and all that… I always refer to Barcelona en Comú because we have existed for longer, we have a sort of ‘tradition’ in the way we work, and on the contrary, the other day we held the founding assembly of Catalunya en Comú and – where are we headed? how long will we be able to maintain the freshness, avoid falling into the traditional vices of political parties? Xavi (Domenech) is a very good candidate, he has what I call a Guanyem DNA, but it’s not evident that we can pull this through. That’s the doubt.

NT — How do you assess the results of the founding assembly of Catalunya en Comú? Are you happy with what came out of it?

JS — Yes, I’m satisfied, although I don’t think the results were optimal, but we are squeezed by a political calendar that we don’t control. It’s very probable that there will be elections this year in Catalonia, so if that happens… what would have been preferable? To reproduce the Barcelona en Comú model, take more time and work more from the bottom up, hold meetings throughout the territory – we did hold about 70 or 80, but a lot more would have been better – do things more slowly and look around, build links with local movements, the same ones as in Barcelona but on the level of Catalonia – energy, water, etc: reconstruct the same process. But sure, they’re going to call elections or a referendum in 2 days. What is clear is that we can’t do the same thing as with ‘Catalunya si que es pot’^{<a href="#cite_note-8">[8]</a>}, which was a coalition but it didn’t work. So all this has meant that the process – despite the fact that I think it has been carried out well, is not optimal: within the realm of the possible, I think it was done with great dignity.

NT — And with respect to the deliberative process that was used to arrive at the final document?

JS — Basically the same thing: it could have been done better, with deeper debates in each area, it was done very quickly, a lot of issues in a short period of time. The task was very complex, and I think the result is worthy. We tried to avoid standardised jargon and parameters, to make it a bit different. So now we’ll see – yesterday the Executive met for the first time, and on May 13 will be the first meeting of the coordinating group of 120 people^{<a href="#cite_note-9">[9]</a>}. So we’ll have to see how this all is gotten underway. I am not convinced that it will all be functional in time for the Catalan elections, for me the key date is May 2019 which are the next municipal elections. Then we’ll see if this has really jelled and if we can have a significant presence throughout the territory. This territorial vision is very important in order to avoid a top-down construction. The key thing in Catalonia is to do it with dignity and not to become entrapped in this dual logic of independence or not, to be capable of bringing together a social force that is in that position.

<iframe loading="lazy" title="Will Work For Free | 2013" width="880" height="495" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0SuGRgdJA_c?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Will Work For Free is a documentary by Sam Vallely on the subject of technological unemployment.

OFFICIAL RELEASE 2013

This work is protected under fair use and will always be free.

Santiago Hoerth Moura from <a href="http://www.pillku.org/">Revista Pillku</a> met Alain Ambrosi in Mexico City last November 2012 during the preparatory meeting for the <a href="http://p2pfoundation.net/Overview_of_the_Economics_of_the_Commons_Conference">Economics, Commons Conference</a>. They have discussed about commons and about Remix the Commons project. Santiago Hoerth Moura has published the following interview in Spanish.

Entrevista con Alain Ambrosi

Remix the Commons es una plataforma de intercambio multimedia

Alain Ambrosi es de Québec, la ciudad de Montreal en Canadá y trabaja para una organización que se llama COMMUNOTIC como investigador asociado, y específicamente para un proyecto que se llama Remix the Commons o Remezcla los comunes que es un proyecto internacional de plataforma en la web.

Por Redacción Pillku

¿Cuál es tu experiencia de trabajo con los comunes?

Mi experiencia de trabajo en los comunes empieza en la documentación de todo lo que se hace y lo que se dice sobre los comunes desde hace ya tres años. Empezando en el Foro Social de Belém en 2009, donde tuvimos el primer Encuentro Internacional Ciencia y Democracia, donde se habló de los commons. En este tiempo se hablaba de los bienes comunes, y la declaración final de este foro social mundial de Belém integró una declaración de recuperación de los Bienes Comunes. Desde este tiempo yo hice como siguiendo un poco las manifestaciones, conferencias, que se hacían sobre los comunes, hubo después la conferencia de Berlín organizado también por el Commons Strategies Group pero con la Fundación Heinrich Böll, era el primer encuentro donde la gente de los comunes materiales y de los comunes inmateriales se encontraron por primera vez digamos. Y fue en esta ocasión que hemos pensando y lanzado la idea de un proyecto que se llama Remix the Commons.

Entonces contamos un poco en qué consiste Remix the Commons.

Remix the Commons es una plataforma de intercambio de difusión, de producción, de documentos multimedia sobre el tema de los comunes. Es una plataforma socio-técnica, donde preferimos hablar más de lo socio que de lo técnico, y decir que es una plataforma que es un espacio de co-creación sobre los comunes. Entonces hemos empezado con entrevistas en todas estas reuniones, foros sociales, pero estamos integrando varios documentos sobre los comunes. Pero la plataforma no es solamente una cosa que va hacer sobre internet; es realmente un espacio de trabajo de co-creación, quiere decir que ya tenemos un montón de problemas que resolver, problemas técnicos que para nosotros es algo menor, pero a nivel jurídico legal porque vamos a hacer circular imágenes, videos, lo cual es un problema grande, y a nivel económico también, porque hay que sustentar este tipo de proyectos y ya tenemos varias ideas de trabajar a nivel de los comunes, porque nosotros nos consideramos com un bien común, quiero decir el proyecto Remix the Commons, queremos funcionar como un bien común, una comunidad de “partenarios” que van a decir las reglas propias, para ir adelante con el proyecto.

Entonces tenemos otras dimensiones muy importantes, como la gobernanza, como cuáles reglas vamos a poner y, también, otra dimensión que me parece muy importante que es la dimensión intercultural porque es muy difícil, por ejemplo que hemos visto desde el principio en Berlín: hace dos años tenemos una serie de entrevistas, de series que hablan de los comunes en chino o en otros idiomas, y se ve que el concepto mismo de commons corresponde a algo bien profundo en todas las culturas, y a veces hay diferencias, etc., y entonces es un desafío que me parece muy grande eso, el de la interculturalidad, las traducciones, etc.

Remix The Commons es un proyecto colaborativo sobre obras multimedia. Su objetivo es documentar e ilustrar las ideas y prácticas en torno a la cuestión del bien común en el proceso creativo. Para conocer más su trabajo visita: <a href="https://www.remixthecommons.org">https://www.remixthecommons.org</a>

via<a href="http://www.pillku.org/article/remix-the-commons-es-una-plataforma-de-intercambio/">Remix the commons es una plataforma de intercambio multimedia | Revista Pillku, amantes de la libertad | Cultura Libre.</a>

A workshop <a href="http://mappingthecommons.net/">mapping the commons</a> will take place at Rio (Brazil) from 18 to 26 of october 2013, coordinated by <a href="http://hackitectura.net/">Pablo de Soto</a> with the collaboration of <a href="http://www.bernardogutierrez.es/">Bernardo Gutiérrez</a> and the support of MediaLab (Madrid).

<iframe loading="lazy" width="400" height="225" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Nrtbi9gbuWw?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Mapping the commons was developed by Pablo Soto. This initiative aims to produce with inhabitants, activists in the place, living maps, consisting of short video documentaries and vidéoposts. The proposed approach takes the form of an intense multi-day workshop with communication students and activists to find the Commons, define and make them visible in the territory by producing media that form the map.

Pablo Soto initiated this approach around urban commons of <a href="http://mappingthecommons.net/map-of-istanbul-commons/">istanbul</a> and <a href = "http://mappingthecommons.net/map-of-athens-commons/"> Athens </ a>. See the work done about <a href="http://mappingthecommons.net/taksim-square/"> Taksim Square </a>, whose privatization was one of the starting points of protest in Turkey this year. The mapping is a strategic tool. To research of the urban commons is a process of mapping the space, that Pablo Soto understand « as proposed by Deleuze and Guattari, and used many artists and activists during the last decade, as a <a href="http://cartografiaciudadana.net/athenscommons/auto.php"> performance</a> which can be thinking, artistic work, or social change ».

On 20 March 2013, a wikisprint was performed in Barcelona using the same principles and methodology . Under the title  » Global P2P  » , it was to map Common practices and P2P in Latin America and southern Europe. See in English <a href=" http://codigoabiertocc.wordpress.com/2013/08/07/globalp2p-the-wind-that-shook-the-net/"> # GlobalP2P , the wind that shook the net </a>.

Rio next step Mapping the commons is one of the cities that comes from living like the rest of Brazil, an intense social and political mobilization against international festivities that tend to <a href= "http:// scinfolex.wordpress.com/?s=Olympic"> privatize public space </a>. Many consider these mobilizations, their claims and modes of organization fall within the paradigm of Commons. See analysis on the subject of Bernardo Gutierrez in <a href="http://blogs.20minutos.es/codigo-abierto/2013/05/23/globalp2p-el-viento-que-desordeno-las-redes/">el viento that desordeno las redes</a> and Alexandre Mendes in <a href ="http://uninomade.net/tenda/a-atualidade-de-uma-democracia-das-mobilizacoes-e-do-comum/"> A atualidade uma das democracia mobilizacoes do comum e</a>.

To go further , we recommand to read the article <a href="http://www.academia.edu/2637017/Mapping_the_Commons_Workshop"> Mapping the Commons Workshop: Athens and Istanbul </a> , Pablo De Soto, Daphne Dragona , Aslihan Şenel , Demitri Delinikolas José Pérez de Lama

L’Assemblée Européenne des Communs (ECA) est un <a href="http://europeancommonsassembly.eu">réseau de personnes engagées dans les communs</a> sur le terrain en Europe. Ce réseau s’est donné rendez-vous au Medialab Prado, Madrid du 25 au 27 octobre prochain. Cette rencontre se déroule en parallèle du Festival Transeuropa, lui-même une vaste réunion autour des alternatives politiques, sociales et environnementales. L’appel à participer est ouvert jusqu’au 4 août. [voir ici le <a href="https://goo.gl/forms/9vID21eSIojQsffk1">formulaire d’inscription</a>]

<a data-flickr-embed="true" data-footer="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/medialab-prado/28100107155/" title="18.05.16 Taller"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="" width="800" height="500" alt="18.05.16 Taller"></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

L’Assemblée Européenne des Communs (ECA) a été lancée en novembre 2016 lors du <a href="https://europeancommonsassembly.eu/process/">premier événement public</a> sur les communs qui s’est déroulé au Parlement Européen et au centre social Zinneke à Bruxelles, en Belgique. Cette réunion a rassemblé plus de 150 commoners européens pour faire valoir la nécessité de politiques publiques pour les communs en Europe et développer les réseaux pour inscrire cette démarche dans la durée.

La rencontre de Madrid se structure autour d’ateliers thématiques sur les communs urbains, d’une rencontre avec les acteurs politiques de madrilènes et d’autres villes espagnoles, et de temps de délibération sur le futur de ECA à l’horizon 2018/2019.

Les ateliers thématiques, au coeur du processus de cette rencontre, permettront, à partir des échanges avec les initiatives madrilènes et espagnoles, d’expérimenter et de proto-typer les outils utiles au développement des communs urbains en Europe. Les premiers participants inscrits ont proposés de travailler sur dans thèmes tels que : Espace public, Migrations et réfugiés, Participation citoyenne à la politique urbaine, Culture, Aliments, Logement, Santé, Devise et financement pour les communs, Lois et mécanismes juridiques pour protéger les communs, Technologie pour la citoyenneté. Vous pouvez également proposer un thème qui ne figure pas déjà dans cette liste. Un processus d’agglutination permettra de définir la liste définitive des ateliers dans la limite de 8 atleirs. Pour cela remplissez le formulaire et proposez l’organisation d’un atelier spécifique et / ou de participer à l’un des ateliers déjà identifié qui vous intéresse.

Chaque atelier sera l’occasion de collaborations entre une ou plusieurs initiatives communautaires locales espagnoles et d’autres venant d’ailleurs en Europe engagées sur le thème de l’atelier. Ces ateliers seront conçus pour permettre le partage et l’exploration des connaissances et des stratégies fruits de ces expériences. À cette fin, l’équipe de coordination de ECA à Madrid organisera plusieurs vidéoconférences pour relier les différentes initiatives et co-concevoir les contenus de l’atelier avant la rencontre avec les participants. La méthodologie de facilitation sera aussi conçue pour inclure les participants dans la démarche structuration de la documentation des travaux collectifs afin de ressortir de la rencontre avec une boite à outils partagée sur les communs urbains.

Coté logistique, lorsque vous remplissez le formulaire, vous pouvez indiquer si vous avez besoin de faire couvrir vos frais de déplacement et / ou d’hébergement par l’organisation (dans le cas où il n’est pas possible de couvrir ces dépenses d’une autre manière).

Pour plus d’informations, contactez nicole.leonard [at] sciencespo.fr ou bien retrouvez plus d’informations sur le<a href="https://europeancommonsassembly.eu/"> site Web de ECA</a>.

We are organising a Barcamp dedicated to video as commons in Paris the 4th of october from 14:00 to 18:00 at <a href="http://labodeledition.com/contenu/222/remix-video-tech?symfony=vek5amij7du0s2jsiqjhit6jd2">Labo de l’édition</a> 75005 Paris.

Documentary production provides a largely untapped source of video, images and audio files. For each documentary produced, many hours of rushes are carried out and a large part will seldom be used. It is estimated that for every documentary produced several dozen hours of rushes for only 52 minutes used.

However, the pooling of rushes could multiply the forms of collaboration such as productions geographically distributed, creations adapted to local contexts, or adopting the point of view of different producers and multiple users for the same subject or content. In addition, the sharing of rushes may be accompanied by other exchanges: tools, know-how, good ideas and ultimately generate new projects.

The idea that these resources can be shared and remixed is the basis of projects such as Remix The Commons and sideways. So we invite directors, producers and users of multimedia content to explore the possibiliies of sharing and re-use in the field the documentary video.

See the details of the <a href="https://www.remixthecommons.org/en/2013/06/barcamp-remix-video-tech-pour-la-video-en-biens-communs/">barcamp in French</a>.

Le monde a besoin d’idées pour un avenir meilleur et durable, mais les idées ne suffisent pas. La plate-forme FuturePerfect est une encyclopédie virtuelle reprenant les initiatives de personnes, d’organisations et d’entreprises qui ont osé passer de la pensée à l’acte. Ces histoires visent à informer sur les modes de vie alternatifs et à inciter à l’engagement citoyen.

Les partenaires français de FuturePerfect, l’équipe allemande de FUTURZWEI, des militants et tout public intéressé se retrouveront pour débattre du rôle des médias dans une perspective de pratiques d’économie sociale et de modes de vie durables.

Edition française de Free Fair and Alive, The Insurgent Power Of The Commons est disponible en librairie à partir du 18 novembre 2022

Les communs ne se résument pas à des projets à petite échelle visant à améliorer la vie quotidienne. Ils sont une vision séminale pour réimaginer ensemble notre avenir et réinventer notre organisation sociale, notre économie, nos infrastructures, notre politique et le pouvoir de l’État lui-même.

Alors que le monde d’aujourd’hui est confronté aux risques de rupture climatique et de pénuries énergétiques, ce livre ose imaginer comment d’innombrables actes de partage peuvent construire une nouvelle culture et une économie politique révolutionnaire. Il ambitionne de conceptualiser les communs en tant que système social, dynamique et créatif, vivant de l’ingéniosité quotidienne et des valeurs coopératives.

Il développer un appareil théorique décrivant de manière fine et détaillée un ensemble de modèles de l’action en commun orienté vers ce qui est utile et équitable et de dessiner ainsi un terrain d’émancipation et de démocratie réelle.

En s’appuyant sur des exemples concrets de pratiques des communs à travers le monde, depuis les forêts communautaires de l’Inde et les communes urbaines d’Italie, jusqu’aux coopératives de plateformes sur internet et aux soins infirmiers de quartier aux Pays-Bas, David Bollier et Silke Helfrich démontrent que nous pouvons être des personnes libres et créatives et nous gouverner nous-mêmes grâce à des institutions justes et responsables.

Les auteurs : David Bollier et Silke Helfrich

David Bollier est directeur du programme “Reinventing the Commons” au Schumacher Center for a New Economics et cofondateur du “Commons Strategies Group”. Auteur de La Renaissance des communs (ECLM, 2014), entre autres livres, il vit à Amherst, dans le Massachusetts, aux États-Unis.

Militante, universitaire et conférencière, Silke Helfrich a cofondé le “Commons Strategies Group” et le “Commons Institute”. Elle a été l’éditrice et la coautrice de plusieurs livres sur les communs et vivait à Neudenau, en Allemagne.

Page web de l’éditeur :

<a href="https://www.eclm.fr/livre/le-pouvoir-subversif-des-communs/">Le pouvoir subversif des communs</a>

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Contact presse :
Isabelle Yafil – 01 43 14 75 82 – isabelle.yafil@eclm.fr
Partenariat de diffusion Remix the commons

Entrevue avec Ugo Mattei. Chieri, 14 juillet 2015

Auteur : Irene Favero
Traduction de Camille Le Crosnier

Cette interview a été réalisée sous la forme d’une promenade, partant de la mairie de Chieri, point central du Festival International des Communs, jusqu’à Ex Tabasso, une friche industrielle de 3000m2, située en centre ville, récupérée pour y instituer un espace en-commun.

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Histoire d’un festival

Ce festival est une tentative de travail sur l’alphabétisation des peuples par rapport aux biens communs. Dans un processus révolutionnaire il est nécessaire de ne pas retomber dans les erreurs du passé. Jusqu’à présent tous les processus révolutionnaires ont fini par retomber dans les mêmes mécanismes de pouvoir en se limitant à changer les personnes qui détiennent ces pouvoirs.

J’ai consacré presque toute ma carrière scientifique et académique à essayer de former des générations et des groupes de personnes qui pourront devenir des leaders une fois la révolution faite, sans retomber dans les erreurs du passé.

La fondation de l’IUC1 n’avait pas comme but de faire la révolution, puisqu’elle viendra de toute façon, mais de me préoccuper de ce qui viendra après. Pendant un certain temps j’ai pensé que cela pouvait se réaliser uniquement grâce aux élites, que l’on pourrait imaginer la construction d’une avant-garde. À partir de 2010-2011 environ, de la période de la première organisation du référendum, j’ai réalisé que les élites sont trop facilement corruptibles et qu’au contraire les masses ne peuvent pas être corrompues, sinon par des processus extrêmement complexes.

J’ai donc pensé que les biens communs devaient devenir une grammaire de masse, que l’on doive arriver d’abord à une fertilisation intellectuelle des personnes, pour leur faire comprendre ce que sont les biens communs, les risques que l’on encourt si on ne s’en préoccupe pas, la joie que l’on ressent à s’en occuper, en bref toutes ces expériences qui rendent la vie digne d’être vécue non pas comme une expérience de masturbation solipsiste mais comme une expérience plus sociale, politique. J’ai donc réfléchi à la façon de contaminer le plus de personnes possible. C’est ce que j’ai essayé de faire à Naples, avec l’idée d’alphabétisation écologique. J’avais introduit, dans le statut de l’Azienda Spéciale ABC (Acqua Bene Comune) de Naples, un chapitre consacré à cette question : investir dans la construction d’une conscience écologique dans les écoles etc. Et je l’ai fait en partie, mais ensuite l’expérience napolitaine s’est arrêtée, d’une façon plutôt dramatique d’ailleurs, et puis je me suis retrouvé avec cette opportunité.

Contexte politique de Chieri

Je n’aurais jamais imaginé participer à une élection administrative et encore moins vouloir devenir maire de Chieri. J’y ai une maison de vacances, mais je n’avais jamais fréquenté l’environnement politique de cette ville. Puis, un groupe de camarades m’ont dit « Ici, c’est l’ennui total, ils sont tous pareils, le Parti démocrate (centre gauche) est comme le PDL (centre droite)… », donc j’ai dit « Si vous voulez utiliser mon nom pour les menacer d’une candidature, allez-y », et ces camarades ont répandu la rumeur selon laquelle j’aurais voulu me porter candidat aux élections locales. Le Parti démocrate, surestimant mes possibilités de gagner l’élection, du fait de ma présence dans le contexte politique national, a proposé de faire un accord politique plutôt que de me laisser participer. Et dans cet accord j’ai négocié un certain nombre de points.

Le premier étant le refus de la construction du Périphérique Est, qui était un grand chantier qui devait se faire, voulu par le Parti démocrate, et ils ont finalement accepté malgré des désaccords importants. Le deuxième était la création d’un règlement pour le gouvernement des biens communs sur lequel j’aurais eu la main, donc différent et plus avancé que celui de Bologne et des autres plus subsidiaires, et qui puisse fonctionner d’une autre façon. Le troisième point était l’organisation d’un festival international des biens communs.

C’était donc un accord d’un an, un accord politique que j’ai respecté. Et nous avons donc organisé le festival avec les camarades : Freddy, Roberta, Ettore, Michele Spanò, les camarades de l’IUC, et toutes les personnes qui ont collaboré.

J’ai vu le festival comme un moyen de faire repartir en Italie le discours sur les biens communs après le référendum sur « l’Acqua bene commune », en remettant les communs au centre de la discussion, avec une dimension nationale et même internationale et pas seulement purement locale. L’idée était de sensibiliser cette population locale qui en a bien besoin : Chieri est une petite ville riche, petite-bourgeoise, très catholique, qui a donc un véritable besoin de pensée critique. Mais il y a aussi une dimension nationale, on voulait essayer de voir combien de personnes ayant participé aux luttes pour les biens communs ces dernières années voulaient y prendre part, et elles sont nombreuses. Il s’agissait d’ouvrir de nouveaux scénarios de dialogue international. L’équilibre entre le monde académique et les activistes en ce qui concerne les communs

Deux choses importantes se sont passées ici. La première étant celle de la réflexion politique : il y a eu un rapprochement en Italie entre les praticiens des biens communs « gentils », donc Rodotà et le monde issu de la commission sur les biens communs (les biens communs libéraux si on peux les appeler ainsi), et les praticiens des biens communs « méchants », les « méchants maîtres », Negri, EuroNomade etc… Et cette recomposition a eu lieu, c’est à dire que nous avons parlé un langage commun, nous nous sommes mis ensemble autour de la table, nous avons repris des conversations qui étaient en suspend depuis longtemps. C’était un point important. À cela s’est ajouté un fait nouveau très important, que l’on comprendra mieux avec le temps : le passage, dans la doctrine catholique relative aux biens communs, de la vision transcendante à la vision immanente. C’est l’un des sujets de discussion que l’on a fait avancer.

Il existe un acte constitutionnel (je prends le point de vue du juriste que je suis) du plus ancien système juridique occidental, celui de l’église catholique, qui a mis dans sa constitution le devoir pour plus d’un milliard de personnes de traiter les biens communs immanents, ceux de la terre, avec une attitude de soin et de protection. Avec une composition de ce type, on est face à une composition constituante. Remettre en jeu, contre le néolibéralisme et contre la pensée unique, une masse très vaste et hétérogène mais réunie autour d’un processus de résistance, cela a une importance énorme. Et cela a fonctionné comme cadre théorique.

Pour ce qui est de la participation citoyenne, il y a eu beaucoup de monde, il y a eu quelques articles dans les journaux, on en a parlé… Bien sûr, nombre de ces séminaires n’étaient pas simples, mais ils ont représenté un moment de discussion et beaucoup de personnes ont participé. Lors des conférences matinales, qui étaient pensées comme des moments d’étude, hier, vendredi matin, il y avait 150-160 personnes engagées dans les trois séminaires, ce matin, samedi, une centaine. Cela signifie qu’environ 250 personnes ont pensé aux communs avec un niveau technique plutôt avancé. Et puis on a parlé de beaucoup d’autres choses aussi, dont l’« Area Tabasso bene comune ».

C’est clair qu’il faut trouver des équilibres, mais on fait ce qu’on peut, c’était une première édition et on verra dans le futur. La suite

Dans l’idéologie de la modernité je refuse l’idée de l’obligation de résultat, l’important c’est le processus. Cette idée du résultat est un peu phallique, ce qui m’intéresse c’est le processus qui conduit au résultat. Ce festival est une partie d’un chemin, qui m’occupe complètement et qui occupe d’autres personnes aussi, qui est le chemin qui doit conduire à l’incendie du grand tas de bois mouillé qu’est le capitalisme, qui peut être incendié mais en s’y prenant de différentes façons. Si tu essayes d’incendier un tas de bois mouillé à partir d’un seul endroit tu n’y arriveras jamais, si tu t’y mets de différents endroits tu y arrives. Comme on ne sait pas quel pourrait être l’endroit le plus adapté, moi, de façon peut-être désordonnée, j’essaye à chaque fois que je peux et d’où je peux. Si chacun fait de même, ensemble, on construit un chemin d’émancipation, et cela serait très beau à mon avis.

La dimension internationale

Il a été très important d’avoir avec nous le réseau francophone, les camarades des Balkans, des gens comme Bollier, très actif aux Etats Unis, des personnes venues de l’Allemagne, etc… Et pas que des activistes, par exemple des personnes de la European Cultural Foundation qui ont aussi soutenu ce festival et ont été, comme d’habitude, très éclairés. Donc il y a eu des premiers pas. Bien sûr, s’il fallait organiser des états généraux des communs en Europe on pourrait les faire mais il faudrait des ressources, un lieu un peu plus central que Chieri. On pourrait imaginer les mettre en place, mais pour le moment on a fait ce qu’on était en mesure de faire dans ce contexte.

Que peut apporter Chieri dans un contexte international ?

Chieri, dans ce processus, amène une pratique et une expérimentation, le dépassement d’une fermeture culturelle et intellectuelle plutôt forte qui était là et que l’on a essayé de faire sauter avec ce festival. La politique de la représentativité n’a pas encore été comprise : je perdrai probablement mon poste de maire adjoint suite à ce festival, malgré le succès, à cause des polémiques… mais ça a donné des résultats. Ça a démontré que, dans n’importe quel contexte, il est possible de faire passer la discussion sur les biens communs. Je pense qu’à Chieri aujourd’hui beaucoup de personnes savent ce que sont les biens communs, ou en tout cas en ont entendu parler.

À chaque action correspond une réaction. Il y a des réactions qu’il vaut la peine de contraster et d’autres non. Je ne sais pas si ça en vaut la peine ici, ça dépend des capacités évolutives d’un chemin politique. Chacun n’a qu’une vie, je mène une lutte politique qui n’est pas locale, c’est une lutte politique pour les communs. Ici comme à Naples, qui sont les deux expériences d’administrateur public que j’ai eues, j’ai laissé une marque culturelle, beaucoup de monde a changé sa façon de voir les organisations hiérarchico-administratives suite au passage des biens communs et du travail que l’on a mené dans ces contextes. Et puis est-ce que ça vaut la peine de résister ? Ça dépend, peut-être que si on résistait on pourrait rester, mais ça dépend pour quoi faire. C’est un match politique ouvert. Nous referons sans doute le festival, ici ou ailleurs, à un moment ou un autre. Dans combien de temps ? On verra, on est libre. Si la formule a marché ça on le comprendra après…

Ex Tabasso, friche et charte des communs

Cet endroit est une ancienne filature de coton qui a du fermer suite à la mondialisation, du jour au lendemain. L’endroit a été abandonné puis racheté par la mairie dans une opération visionnaire et en dépensant un peu de sous. La mairie a essayé ensuite d’en faire un project financing, elle voulait le transformer en un lieu avec un cinéma, un supermarché et des parkings, en le détruisant et le reconstruisant. Heureusement, le project financing a échoué à cause de la crise, et maintenant se pose la question de ce qu’on peut en faire. Par exemple, au cours de cette première année de mon mandat électoral, j’ai constaté que l’Area Tabasso avait de fait été déclarée bien commun par la population de Chieri, avec des pratiques, un comité qui s’est mis en place, des discussions… C’est un lieu important dans l’imaginaire des gens du coin… et si tu y penses ça ne peux être qu’ainsi pour les citoyens de Chieri. C’est une construction de 33000m2, énorme, très belle, on pourrait y faire beaucoup de choses, une partie de leur vie est liée à ce lieu, c’est leur histoire, le textile est très lié aux conditions de cette ville, donc c’est un endroit idéal…

Je dois dire (en parlant en tant que camarade et non en tant que maire-adjoint) que dans la plupart des autres contextes ce lieu aurait déjà été occupé. Ça aurait été une belle occasion d’occuper un lieu en ayant une administration qui parle de biens communs, on aurait pu voir quelle était la dynamique réelle sous-jacente et quelle part j’aurais pu jouer dans ce sens. Si on pense à une autre expérience comme celle du Colorificio (ancienne usine de peinture) à Pise, c’est une zone plus petite et moins belle que celle-ci, elle a été occupée en très peu de temps et a commencé à revivre. Ici, depuis un an que l’on en parle, aujourd’hui, pour un grand nombre d’habitants de Chieri, c’est la première fois qu’ils ont eu l’intérêt de venir voir et qu’ils sont rentrés, grâce à l’organisation de cette promenade. Cela démontre le type de tissu social existant à Chieri.

Ce festival a ouvert cet espace aux citoyens. Il a ré-ouvert aussi le Bastione della mina où se tiennent ce soir des performances, il y en a une magnifique où l’on va voir les étoiles tous ensemble. C’est un lieu magnifique, public, fermé depuis des années, personne n’y rentrait plus et nous l’avons ré-ouvert pour le festival. On a fait un pacte de partage avec un de mes amis qui s’est occupé de l’ouvrir, qui l’a nettoyé et remis aux normes. La population de Chieri sait maintenant qu’il y a un parc là, qu’elle ne connaissait pas avant. C’est un endroit émouvant de beauté. Chieri n’est pas une belle ville, elle a des côtés très beaux dans un tissu urbain qui a été transformé brutalement par un développement très extractif, il y a des grands immeubles très moches juste à côté de belles constructions du moyen âge. Ce Bastione est une forteresse médiévale qui défendait la ville, et il y a un parc magnifique à l’intérieur. La cour de la mairie, où nous avons fait l’ouverture du festival, est normalement le parking où se garent les employés et c’est un endroit très beau, et la partie devant la mairie c’est normalement l’endroit où on fait la queue pour payer les amendes…

Le règlement : un moyen pour étudier un projet pour l’Area Tabasso

Le règlement prévoit déjà un avis pour la constitution d’une entité que l’on souhaite voir devenir l’entité de référence pour cet endroit. Si je restais maire-adjoint je soignerais en particulier l’interprétation du règlement, il y a toujours un risque que les règlements soient appliqués d’une façon détournée… Mais si on arrivait à mettre en place une entité autonome, partagée, avec des processus délibératifs de type démocratique, inclusive et non-verticale, cette entité deviendrait la titulaire de l’Area Tabasso et déciderait de ce qui se passe ici, ce qui est quelque chose d’énorme qui ne s’est jamais produit auparavant. Évidemment, il est très difficile de mettre en place cette entité, nous avons mis à disposition un espace public où un groupe de personnes se rencontre tous les mardis, c’est toujours un peu les mêmes mais ce sont eux qui ont organisé tout ça. L’idée est de commencer en transformant le lieu en un espace ouvert, une sorte de place couverte, en faisant les travaux minimum nécessaires pour garantir la sécurité du lieu et que ce soit peu coûteux. Ça serait un endroit où l’on puisse mettre 700 chaises et une scène pour faire des spectacles, y faire du skate, du parkour, du sport, ce qu’on veut… Ici il fait très froid l’hiver, donc avoir un endroit couvert comme celui-ci peut être utile.

Ne pas perdre de vue la dimension festive des biens communs

As-tu jamais essayé de récolter des cerises ? C’est un travail chiant. Au temps des biens communs les paysans récoltaient les cerises tous ensemble, en un jour, en faisant la fête des cerises. Donc, une même activité qui faite tout seul devient l’un des travaux les plus aliénants et ennuyeux qui existent, si faite dans un cadre festif devient une belle chose. On récolte les cerises tous ensemble, on moissonne tous ensemble, et ça devient un travail qui se transforme grâce à la dimension festive. La dimension festive pour les communs est fondamentale parce que tu peux faire la révolution avec le visage triste, tu peux essayer d’être révolutionnaire d’une façon sérieuse ou pensive, ou tu peux faire une révolution en riant. Et l’une des choses que l’on a appris c’est qu’on ne fait pas de révolution si on ne s’amuse pas. Donc oui, la dimension festive est incroyablement importante.

Ici il y aura la place couverte, si on la fait, de là bas jusqu’ici. Et ici c’est un théâtre naturel, il n’y aurait qu’à creuser là, ici tu mets les gradins, là-bas tu mets les écrans, et c’est un théâtre. Avec très peu tu peux imaginer de mettre une structure en bois et en faire une vraie salle de théâtre, dont on a un besoin dramatique dans cette petite ville.

Ça, ça appartient à tous les habitants de Chieri. Du fait de l’avoir ouvert, les gens maintenant se disent « ça c’est à nous ! à notre communauté, on peut construire de la cohésion, en travaillant dur et en investissant de l’argent dedans, mais en ayant un projet commun ». Et le processus pour définir cette vision commune devient un processus démocratique. Ce qui m’intéresserait, mais je ne sais pas si je vais y arriver, c’est de prendre tout ça et de le faire devenir un bien commun d’un point de vue juridique. Que ça ne soit plus public, que ça ne dépende plus de qui a gagné l’élection municipale, que ça ne dépende plus du fait qu’il y ait un maire praticien des biens communs, un maire du Parti démocrate ou un maire du PDL, mais que ça devienne un bien commun pour toujours, que ça devienne une fondation dans l’intérêt des générations futures, que ça devienne un Community Land Trust, que ça devienne une structure juridique différente, nouvelle, complètement autonome par rapport à la machine politique.

Le règlement permet de faire des pas dans ce sens. Évidemment il faut aussi une volonté politique, qui ne sera jamais accordée si le mouvement ne devient pas suffisamment fort autour de tout ça. Les luttes pour l’émancipation ne peuvent jamais être imposées d’en haut. Si socialement, dans cette petite ville, dans cette population, il y a une envie de lutter afin que ce lieu devienne une expérimentation au niveau international, les conditions sont déjà là pour pouvoir le faire et nous les avons construites également d’un point de vue juridique. Si cette volonté politique de la base n’est pas là, il y aura une volonté politique d’en haut, mais je doute fortement qu’elle accepte de se priver d’un bien d’une aussi grande valeur.

Quelles convergences entre loi et pratiques autour des communs ?

En ce qui concerne le contexte de Chieri, jusqu’ici la partie légale est en avance par rapport à la partie sociale, qui n’est pas encore là. Il y a du mouvement autour de ça, je ne sais pas si c’est un mouvement structurellement relevant des communs, ni quels intérêts il y a derrière, mais c’est un processus, donc on verra bien. Ce que je sais c’est qu’il y a du scepticisme du côté électoral, donc on verra, c’est une bataille politique. Mais la partie légale est prête : on peut maintenant suivre un chemin légal pour arriver à ce que l’Area Tabasso soit un bien commun pour toujours. C’est déjà en place, on va voir si on peut remplir ce cadre légal. La loi est juste un contenant, tout dépend de ce que tu mets dedans.

D’une façon plus générale : la relation entre loi et mouvements sociaux est extrêmement compliquée. Je ne suis qu’un juriste, pas un philosophe, donc je ne sais pas vraiment comment faire abstraction de ça. Je me considère comme la preuve vivante du fait qu’on peut être juriste et praticien des biens communs en même temps. Tu peux être juriste et raisonner dans le cadre mental de la loi, qui se développe d’une façon très traditionnelle : s’il faut aller aux tribunaux, je vais aux tribunaux… Mais en même temps j’essaie d’être aux côtés des personnes qui essayent de se battre pour quelque chose et de prendre part à ces luttes, et de comprendre que la loi est là pour les citoyens et essayer de l’interpréter, donc je crois que c’est possible…

Nous avons une classe de juristes qui est prête à travailler dans ce sens, ils ne sont pas nombreux mais ça sera sans doute le cas pour les plus jeunes. Et quelques autres fous plus âgés… même plus âgés que moi !

Une rencontre publique avec Bernard Stiegler et Michel Bauwens le 16 septembre 2014 de 18:00 à 20:30 au Centre Pompidou à Paris.

Attention changement de salle ! La rencontre se déroule dans la Petite Salle du Centre Pompidou.

Les <a href="https://www.eventbrite.fr/e/inscription-rencontre-publique-avec-bernard-stiegler-et-michel-bauwens-1885113425?ref=elink" target="_blank" style="color:#3BE8DC" rel="noopener noreferrer">inscriptions</a> sont clauses. Il ne reste plus de place disponible pour cette rencontre.

Face aux crises économique, sociale et écologique, nous sommes nombreux à penser qu’il faut créer les conditions de la transition d’un monde industriel productiviste vers une économie fondée sur le partage de la connaissance en biens communs et sur des modes de productions collaboratifs et contributifs. L’enjeu est d’abord de forger de nouveaux concepts pour comprendre les effets de l’automatisation et de la pénétration du numérique dans tous les aspects de la vie. Il s’agit également de repenser l’intérêt général et la solidarité comme des horizons possibles.

Pour cela, les pouvoirs publics locaux et nationaux, l’Université et la société civile organisée, doivent inventer ensemble, dans les territoires de vie, des alternatives à l’individualisme propriétaire et aux modes de gouvernance fondés sur le duopole Etat/marché.

C’est en tout cas l’hypothèse qui a été faite en Équateur. Ce pays a organisé une vaste étude pour tenter de mettre au clair la construction d’une société en transition appuyée sur les communs. Plusieurs chercheurs et spécialistes internationaux ont été mobilisés, dont Michel Bauwens et Bernard Stiegler.

Quel est le rôle de l’État, des collectivités locales et des territoires dans la transformation de l’économie vers une production des biens et services fondés sur les principes des biens communs ? Quels instruments juridiques et économiques faut-il inventer ? quelles alliances entre les acteurs engagés dans des formes alternatives de l’économie et des innovations sociales ? Comment aller au delà des niches développées avec succès dans certains secteurs – comme l’économie numérique – et permettre un passage à l’échelle vers des modes de production des biens et services fondés sur les principes des biens communs ?

<a href="http://ouishare.net/">Ouishare</a>, <a href="www.savoirscom1.info/">Savoirscom1</a> et <a href="www.vecam.org/">VECAM</a> vous invitent à aborder ces questions avec Michel Bauwens et Bernard Stiegler au cours d’une rencontre publique qui se déroulera le 16 septembre 2014 de 18:00 à 20:30 dans la Salle Triangle du Centre Pompidou, à Paris.

<figure style="width: 400px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" alt="" src="" width="400" height="225" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Michel Bauwens – Berlin 2012 Remix The Commons – Licence Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0</figcaption></figure>

Michel Bauwens est un théoricien de la coopération P2P (de pair à pair), leader de la <a href="http://p2pfoundation.net">P2P Foundation</a>, qu’il a créée en 2005 avec comme objectif: « la recherche, la documentation et la promotion des principes du pair-à-pair ». Il présentera le projet <a href="http://en.wiki.floksociety.org/w/Main_Page">FLOK Society</a> qu’il a dirigé en Équateur tout au long du premier semestre 2014. Cette initiative est née de la volonté du gouvernement équatorien d’élaborer un plan de transition global vers une société basée sur le bien vivre (buen vivir), inscrit dans la constitution du pays. Michel Bauwens, avec une équipe internationale de chercheurs et d’activistes, a élaboré des modèles de production et des instruments juridiques, basés sur la collaboration de pair à pair et le partage de la connaissance en biens communs et proposé une matrice et des politiques dont le gouvernement peut s’inspirer pour une application concrète en Équateur.
<figure id="attachment_3924" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3924" style="width: 398px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href=""><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="" alt="By Joseph.paris — Wikimedia commons. Licence Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons " width="398" height="225" class="size-full wp-image-3924" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-3924" class="wp-caption-text">Bernard Stiegler par Joseph.paris — Wikimedia commons. Licence Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons</figcaption></figure>Bernard Stiegler est philosophe, fondateur et président du groupe de réflexion philosophique <a href="http://arsindustrialis.org">Ars industrialis</a> créé en 2005. Il dirige depuis 2006 l’Institut de recherche et d’innovation (IRI) qu’il a créé au sein du Centre Georges-Pompidou. L’IRI organise chaque année les Entretiens du Nouveau Monde Industriel (ENMI) consacrés à l’exploration des mutations des pratiques culturelles permises par les technologies numériques. Bernard Stiegler inscrit ses travaux dans le champ des digital studies. Pour lui, le numérique qui transforme radicalement notre façon de penser, de parler, de nous représenter le monde, fait apparaître une “organologie des savoirs” pour laquelle il faut définir de nouveaux concepts, théoriser et conceptualiser les pratiques sociales et culturelles et les technologies qui leurs sont associées. L’IRI est aussi engagé dans un projet de coopération avec le ministère de l’enseignement supérieur de l’Équateur qui vise à refonder l’université dans ce pays.

Cette rencontre est organisée avec le soutien de la Fondation Pour le Progrès de l’Homme.

Entrevue avec Joan Subirats(1) par Alain Ambrosi Mai 2018

Joan Subirats est commissaire à la culture de la ville de Barcelone, dirigée par le groupe Barcelona en comu. Il est également professeur de sciences politiques à l’Universitat autonoma de Barcelona et fondateur de l’Institut sur la gouvernance et les politiques publiques (IGOP). Dans cette interview en anglais, il présente les enjeux de la politique culturelle pour la municipalité de Barcelone actuellement dirigée par Barcelona en Comù.

<figure style="width: 800px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-full" src="https://s1.qwant.com/thumbr/0x380/b/4/cf4cf4f48af794bc54dc5384e88975c9e7cd020dbccf80dc35882a989230be/joan%20subirats.jpg?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fepsu.es%2Fimage%2Fjoan%2520subirats.jpg&q=0&b=1&p=0&a=1" alt="Joan Subirats (UAB) Conferencia FEPSU 2016" width="800" height="400" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Joan Subirats (UAB) Conferencia FEPSU 2016</figcaption></figure>

AA

: In your recent article in La Vanguardia(2), you set out a framework for a cultural policy, you refer to putting into practice the key community values that should underpin that policy… Maybe we could start there?

JS: For me, whereas in the 20th century the defining conflict was between freedom and equality – and this marked the tension between right and left throughout the 20th century because in a way this is the frame in which capitalism and the need for social protection evolved together with the commodification of life while at the same time the market called for freedom – ie: no rules, no submission. But the need for protection demanded equality. But in the 21st century there is rejection of the notion of protection linked to statism: Nancy Fraser published an article(3) in the New Left Review, it is a re-reading of Polanyi and she claims that this double movement between commodification and protection is still valid, but that the State-based protection typical of the 20th century, where equality is guaranteed by the State, clashes since the end of the 20th century with the growing importance of heterogeneity, diversity and personal autonomy. Therefore, if in order to obtain equality, we have to be dependent on what the State does, this is going to be a contradiction…. So we could translate those values that informed the definition of policies in the 20th century, in 21st century terms they would be the idea of freedom (or personal autonomy, the idea of empowerment, not subjection, non-dependence) and at the same time equality, but no longer simply equality of opportunities but also equality of condition because we have to compensate for what is not the same (equal) in society. If you say « equal opportunities », that everyone has access to cultural facilities, to libraries, you are disregarding the fact that the starting conditions of people are not the same, this is the great contribution of Amartya Sen, no? You have to compensate for unequal starting situations because otherwise you depoliticize inequality and consider that inequality is the result of people’s lack of effort to get out of poverty. So equality yes, but the approach is different. And we must incorporate the idea of diversity as a key element in the recognition of people and groups on the basis of their specific dignity. That seems easy to say, but in reality it is complicated, especially if you relate it to culture, because culture has to do with all these things: it has to do with the construction of your personality, it has to do with equal access to culture just as cultural rights and culture have to do with the recognition of different forms of knowledge and culture – canonical culture, high culture, popular culture, everyday culture, neighbourhood culture …
So for me, a cultural policy should be framed within the triple focus of personal autonomy, equality and diversity. And this is contradictory, in part, with the cultural policies developed in the past, where there is usually confusion between equality and homogeneity. In other words, the left has tended to consider that equality meant the same thing for everyone and that is wrong, isn’t it?, because you are confusing equality with homogeneity. The opposite of equality is inequality, the opposite of homogeneity is diversity. So you have to work with equality and diversity as values that are not antagonistic, but can be complementary. And this is a challenge for public institutions because they do not like heterogeneity, they find it complicated because it is simpler to treat everyone the same, as the administrative law manual used to prescribe `indifferent efficiency’: it is a way of understanding inequality as indifference, right?

AA

: In your article you also talk about the opposition between investing in infrastructures versus creating spaces and environments that are attractive to creators and you put an emphasis on the generation of spaces. What is being done, what has been done, what could be done about this?

JS : In Barcelona we want to ensure that the city’s cultural policies do not imply producing culture itself, but rather to try to influence the values in the production processes that already exist, in the facilities, in the cultural and artistic infrastructures: the role of the city council, of the municipality, is not so much to produce culture as to contribute to the production of culture. Which is different, helping to produce culture…. Obviously, the city council will give priority to those initiatives that coincide with the values, with the normative approach that we promote. There are some exceptions, for example, the Grec festival in Barcelona(4) in July, or the Mercé(5), which is the Festa Mayor, where the city council does in fact subsidize the production of culture, so some productions are subsidised but generally what we have is a policy of aid to creators. What is being done is that 11 creative factories (fablabs) have been built, these are factories with collectives that manage them chosen through public tenders. There are now 3 factories of circus and visual arts, 2 factories of dance creation, one factory of more global creation housed at Fabra & Coats, 3 theatre factories and 2 visual arts and technology sites. So there are 11 factories of different sorts and there are plans to create others, for example in the field of feminist culture where we are in discussion with a very well consolidated group : normally all these creative factories have their management entrusted to collectives that already become highly consolidated in the process of creation and that need a space to ensure their continuity. Often the city council will cede municipal spaces to these collectives, sometimes through public competitions where the creators are asked to present their project for directing a factory. This is one aspect. Another aspect is what is called living culture, which is a programme for the promotion of cultural activities that arise from the community or from collectives in the form of cooperatives and this is a process of aid to collectives that are already functioning, or occasionally to highlight cultural activities and cultural dynamics that have existed for a long time but have not been dignified, that have not been valued, for example the Catalan rumba of the Gypsies, which is a very important movement in Barcelona that emerged from the gypsy community of El Raval, where there were some very famous artists like Peret. There we invested in creating a group to work on the historical memory of the rumba, looking for the roots of this movement, where it came from and why. Then some signposts were set up in streets where this took place, such as La Cera in El Raval, where there are two murals that symbolise the history of the Catalan rumba and the gypsy community in this area so that this type of thing is publicly visible. That is the key issue for culture: a recognition that there are many different cultures.

Then there is the area of civic centres: approximately 15% of the civic centres in the city are managed by civic entities as citizen heritage, and those civic centres also have cultural activities that they decide on, and the city council, the municipality helps them develop the ideas put forward by the entities that manage those centres.

So, if we put all those things together, we could talk about a culture of the urban commons. It is still early stages, this is still more of a concept than a reality, but the underlying idea is that in the end the density and the autonomous cultural-social fabric will be strong enough to be resilient to political changes. In other words, that you have helped to build cultural practices and communities that are strong and autonomous enough that they are not dependent on the political conjuncture. This would be ideal. A bit like the example I often cite about the housing cooperatives in Copenhagen, that there was 50% public housing in Copenhagen, and a right-wing government privatised 17% of that public housing, but it couldn’t touch the 33% of housing that was in the hands of co-operatives. Collective social capital has been more resilient than state assets: the latter is more vulnerable to changes in political majorities.

AA

: You also speak of situated culture which I think is very important: setting it in time and space. Now Facebook has announced it is coming to Barcelona so the Barcelona brand is going to be a brand that includes Facebook and its allies. But your conception of a situated culture is more about a culture where social innovation, participation, popular creativity in the community are very important…

JS : Yes, it seems contradictory. In fact what you’re asking is the extent to which it makes sense to talk about situated culture in an increasingly globalized environment which is more and more dependent on global platforms. I believe that tension exists and conflict exists, this is undeniable, the city is a zone of conflict, therefore, the first thing we have to accept is that the city is a battleground between political alternatives with different cultural models. It is very difficult for a city council to set out univocal views of a cultural reality that is intrinsically plural. Talking about situated culture is an attempt to highlight the significance of the distinguishing factors that Barcelona possesses in its cultural production. This does not mean that this situated culture should be a strictly localist culture – a situated culture does not mean a culture that cuts off global links – it is a culture that relates to the global on the basis of its own specificity. What is most reprehensible from my point of view are cultural dynamics that have a global logic but that can just as well be here or anywhere else. And it’s true that the platforms generate this. An example: the other day the former minister of culture of Brazil, Lluca Ferreira, was here and talked about a program of living culture they developed, and they posted a photograph of some indigenous people where the man wore something that covered his pubic parts but the woman’s breasts were naked. So Facebook took the photograph off the site, and when the Minister called Facebook Brazil to say ‘what is going on?’, they told him that they didn’t have any duty towards the Brazilian government, that the only control over them was from a judge in San Francisco and that, therefore, if the judge in San Francisco forced them to put the photograph back, they would put it back, otherwise they wouldn’t have to listen to any minister from Brazil or anywhere else. In the end, there was a public movement of protest, and they put the photo back. The same thing happened here a few days ago, a group from a municipal theatre creation factory put up a poster with a man’s ass advertising a play by Virginia Wolff and Facebook took their entire account off the net – not just the photograph, they totally removed them from Facebook. And here too Facebook said that they are independent and that only the judge from San Francisco and so on. I believe that this is the opposite of situated culture because it is a global cultural logic, but at the same time it allows itself to be censored in Saudi Arabia, in China, that is to say it has different codes in each place. So to speak of situated culture means to speak of social transformation, of the relationship between culture and social transformation situated in the context in which you are working. But at the same time to have the will to dialogue with similar processes that exist in any other part of the world and that is the strength of a situated culture. And those processes of mutuality, of hybridization, that can happen when you have a Pakistani community here, you have a Filipino community, you have a Chinese community, you have a Gypsy community, you have an Italian community, you have an Argentinean community: they can be treated as typical folkloric elements in a theme park, or you can try to generate hybridization processes. Now at the Festival Grec this year there will be poetry in Urdu from the Pakistanis, there will be a Filipino theatre coming and a Filipino film fest at the Filmoteca – and this means mixing, situating, the cultural debate in the space where it is happening and trying to steep it in issues of cultural diversity. What I understand is that we need to strive for a local that is increasingly global, that this dialogue between the local and the global is very important.

AA

: Returning to social innovation and popular creativity, social innovation is also a concept taken up pretty much everywhere: how is it understood here? Taking into account that in the world of the commons, Catalonia, and especially Barcelona, is very well known for its fablabs, which are also situated in this new era. How then do you understand social innovation and how do you see the relationship between education and social innovation?

JS : What I am trying to convey is that the traditional education system is doing little to prepare people and to enhance inclusive logics in our changing and transforming society, so in very broad lines I would say that if health and education were the basic redistributive policies of the 20th century, in the 21st century we must incorporate culture as a basic redistributive policy. Because before, the job market had very specific demands for the education sector: it knew very well what types of job profiles it needed because there was a very Taylorist logic to the world of work – what is the profile of a baker, of a plumber, of a miller? How many years you have to study for this kind of work. There is now a great deal of uncertainty about the future of the labour market, about how people will be able to work in the future and the key words that appear are innovation, creativity, entrepreneurship, flexibility, ability to understand a diverse world, teamwork , being open to new ideas: this has little to do with traditional educational profiles, but it has much to do with culture, with things that allow you to acquire that backpack of basic tools that will help you navigate in a much more uncertain environment. And for me, to find the right connection between culture and education is very important because it allows the educational system to constantly transform itself by taking advantage of the creative potential of an environment that is much more accessible now than before because of new technologies, and therefore to make the transition from a deductive system where there is a teacher who knows and tells people what they need to know – to an inductive system: how do we explore what we need to know in order to be able to act. And that more inductive, more experimental logic has to do with creativity whereas the traditional education system didn’t postulate creativity, it postulated your ability to learn what someone else had decided you needed to study. It’s art, it is culture that allows you to play in that field much more easily …

Translated from Spanish by Nancy Thede.

1 Joan Subirats is Commissioner for culture in the city government of Barcelona led by the group Barcelona en comu. He is also professor of political science at the Universitat
autonoma de Barcelona and founder of the Institute on Governance and Public Policy.

2 « Salvara la cultura a las ciudades? », La Vanguardia (Barcelona), Culturals supplement, 12
May 2018, pp. 20-21. https://www.lavanguardia.com/cultura/20180511/443518454074/cultura-ciudadesbarcelona-crisis.html

3 Nancy Fraser, « A Triple Movement », New Left Review 81, May-June 2013. Published in Spanish in Jean-Louis Laville and José Luis Coraggio (Eds.), La izquierda del
siglo XXI. Ideas y diálogo Norte-Sur para un proyecto necesario Icaria, Madrid 2018.

4 Festival Grec, an annual multidisciplinary festival in Barcelona, now in its 42nd year. It is
named for the Greek Theatre built for the 1929 Universal Exhibition in Barcelona:
http://lameva.barcelona.cat/grec/en/.

5 Barcelona’s annual ‘Festival of Festivals’ begins on Sept 24, day of Our Lady of Mercy, a city holiday in Barcelona. It especially highlights catalan and barcelonian cultural traditions and in recent years has especially featured neighbourhood cultural activities like street theatre. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Mercè.

From the 15th-17th of November 2016 a European Commons Assembly will take place in Brussels. The commoners will convene, discuss, showcase, and reclaim Europe. On the afternoon of the 16th, around 150 will partcipate in a meeting in the European Parliament, organized in cooperation with the EP intergroup on Common Goods and Public Services (Led by Marisa Matias, Dario Tamburrano, Ernesto Urtasun, Sergio Cofferati). A variety of other events (and local assemblies) will take place outside Parliament, both in Brussels and across Europe.

Networking, unity and policy around the commons paradigm

On September 26, a group of nonprofits, foundations, and other civil society organizations jointly publish a “Call for a European Commons Assembly” (https://europeancommonsassembly.eu/#section1). The collectively drafted document, which continues to garner signatures from groups and individuals around Europe, serves as a declaration of purpose for a distributed network of “commoners.”
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="" alt="eca" width="900" height="636" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-4561" />
Author: TILL GENTZSCH

The Assembly seeks to unite citizens in trans-local and trans-european solidarity to overcome Europe’s current challenges and reinvigorate the political process for the 21st century. The commons can be understood as a bridging paradigm that stresses cooperation in management of resources, knowledge, tools, and spaces as diverse as water, Wikipedia, a crowdfund, or a community garden. Their Call describes commoning as:

…the network-based cooperation and localized bottom-up initiatives already sustained by millions of people around Europe and the world. These initiatives create self-managed systems that satisfy important needs, and often work outside of dominant markets and traditional state programmes while pioneering new hybrid structures.

The Assembly emerged in May from a diverse, gender balanced pilot community of 28 activists from 15 European countries, working in different domains of the commons. New people are joining the Assembly every week, and ECA is inclusive and open for others to join, so that a broad and resilient European movement can coalesce. It seeks to visibilize acts of commoning by citizens for citizens, while promoting interaction with policy and institutions at both the national and European levels.

Part of a broader movement

The rapid embrace of commons as an alternative holistic, sustainable and social worldview is in part an expression of unease with the unjust current economic system and democratic deficiencies. The commons movement has exploded in recent years, following the award of the Nobel Prize in Economics to Elinor Ostrom in 2009 for her work on managing common resources. It has also seen overlap with other movements, such as the Social and Solidarity and Sharing Economy movements, peer to peer production, and Degrowth.

Michel Bauwens, part of the ECA who is also a prominent figure in the peer-to-peer movement, explains: All over the world, a new social movement is emerging, which is challenging the ‘extractive’ premises of the mainstream political economy and which is co-constructing the seed forms of a sustainable and solidary society. Commoners are also getting a voice, for example through the Assemblies of the Commons that are emerging in French cities and elsewhere. The time is ripe for a shoutout to the political world, through a European Assembly of the Commons.

The Call includes an open invitation to Brussels from November 15 to 17, 2016 for three days of activities and shared reflection on how to protect and promote the commons. It will include an official session in the European Parliament, hosted by the Intergroup on Common Goods and Public Services, on November 16 (limited capacity).

You can read and sign the full text of the Call, also available in French, Spanish, and soon other European languages, on the <a href="http://europeancommonsassembly.eu">ECA website</a>. There is an <a href="http://europeancommonsassembly.eu/sign-call/">option to sign</a> as an individual or an organization.

For more information, visit <a href="http://europeancommonsassembly.eu/">http://europeancommonsassembly.eu/ </a> or follow @CommonsAssembly on Twitter for regular updates.

Media Contact: Nicole Leonard contact@europeancommonsassembly.eu

Keywords: Commons, European, Citizens, Parliament, Participatory Democracy, Civil Society