Open-Source Urbanism: Creating, Multiplying and Managing Urban Commons
Year: 2015
Type: article
Abstract: Within contemporary architecture and urbanism there is marked interest in urban commons. This paper explores the creation of temporary urban commons, or, more specifically, what can be called ‘open-source urbanism’. Citing two practices – urban commons initiated by Atelier d’architecture autogérée in Paris, and Park(ing) Day initiated by San Francisco-based Rebar – I argue that these practices can be understood as open-source urbanism since their initiators act as open-source programmers, constructing practice manuals to be freely copied, used, developed and shared, thus producing self-managed commons. Although this tradition of ‘commoning’ is not new, it is currently being reinvented with the use of digital technologies. Combining Elinor Ostrom’s analysis of self-managed natural resource commons with Yochai Benkler’s assertion that commons-based peer production constitutes a ‘third mode of production’ that lies beyond capitalism, socialism and their blends, I argue that open-source urbanism critiques both government and privately-led urban development by advancing a form of postcapitalist urbanism.
Author: Bradley, Karin
Institution: KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Language: English
Subfield: Urban Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1494569225