| Kommentar |
Once being the host for the first commons conference (2010), the city of Berlin has been offering new ideas, practices and alliances for our society to think of a life built on commons as the core paradigm. This course provides an overview and introduction of urban commons in Berlin and İstanbul with a comperative framework. We will investigate the phenomenon from a multidisciplinary perspective, drawing from sociology, human geography and urban studies within a multicultural classroom. The discussion will be extended to post-capitalist economic, cultural and political practices that contains urban commons, solidarity economy, and other non-capitalist practices. The course consists of three parts: In the first part (session 2-5), we will trace ongoing debates histories and examples around commons, commoners, and practices of commoning in two cities. In the second part (session 6-9), we will discuss theoretical frameworks that have been mobilized to study commons and commoning, such as governing schemes, institutions and alternative social organizational frameworks. In the following third part (sessions 10-14), we will turn more closely towards examples from the classroom. And investigate cases that would be presented by the students. In this way, we aim to tackle and collect nontranslatable terminology and cases around the commons discourse and learn from the rich socio-cultural and geographical context. Critical and creative thinking through an effective communication and interaction would structure the course. Our objective is developing some skills or more ambitiously developing habits on practicing commons, which could be applied effortlessly by each participant. Reading and writing short reflection papers and preparation before the class will be mandatory. |
