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Urban Commons: Building a 'Communal System' of the Future
 
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Wydział Zarządzania i Komunikacji Społecznej/ Instytut Ekonomii, Finansów i Zarządzania/ Zakład Ekonomii i Innowacji, Uniwersytet Jagielloński, Polska
 
 
Submission date: 2021-10-30
 
 
Final revision date: 2022-01-20
 
 
Acceptance date: 2022-01-25
 
 
Online publication date: 2022-04-19
 
 
Publication date: 2022-04-19
 
 
Corresponding author
Zofia Łapniewska   

Wydział Zarządzania i Komunikacji Społecznej/ Instytut Ekonomii, Finansów i Zarządzania/ Zakład Ekonomii i Innowacji, Uniwersytet Jagielloński, ul. Łojasiewicza 4, 30-348, Kraków, Polska
 
 
Problemy Polityki Społecznej 2021;55:48-74
 
KEYWORDS
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ABSTRACT
An increasing number of communities successfully governing urban commons could be seen as a strong move towards ‘delinking’ from homo economicus myth that still remains at the centre of the capitalist economic assumptions. This paper, theoretical in nature, presents an alternative, a preferred scenario of a future 'communal system' as a vision of society built on different values than homo economicus conduct, values that are distinctive for urban commons today, especially in peripheral countries. These are: responsibility, networking, cooperation, caring for others, reciprocity, self-help, continuous learning and sharing. The given three examples of urban commons: Torre David, SE VIOME and Bangkok Noi urban gardens - that illustrate such system in the present - share these values and therefore contribute to social change. Although commons are still at the margins of economic considerations, while corporations through the processes of neo-colonisation dominate the centre, a future transformation into a 'communal system' is possible, as posited by the postcolonial theory and the actor-network-theory (ANT) discussed in this article. Vision of an economic system, based on the new communal myth contributes to the emerging field of post-capitalist, post-growth theories arising in the shadow of a climate catastrophe and other upcoming crises.
 
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