In-depth seminar: HOUSING AS A COMMON POOL RESOURCE

Housing is usually considered to be managed by public or private companies or individuals. With the exception of some cooperatives (not all!), if we live in some form of multiple family buildings, governing our homes usually has nothing to do with us. Our rents and/or mortgages are part of the global financialization system and their price is determined by the rules of the financial market. If we happen to live in public housing, the maintenance of our building can be very bad and in the case of a private landlord, we can expect that the rent can easily go up at any time. But, what if we were to reconsider these claims? What if we can design systems of housing self governance - housing as an arena for decision making of the tenants? Or better yet - city land as a collectively and democratically run resource?

In this semester we will learn the basics of the commons theory and governing of the common pool resources. We will learn how to distinguish between public, private and common ownership and governance. This means that we will learn how collective rights and obligations are designed in order to govern a collective resource. During the course we will take a deep dive into texts of a Nobel prize winner Elinor Ostrom and her theory of common pool resources together with other authors that write about autonomous governing of space. The main task of the seminar will be to imagine and design an autonomous governing system of housing or city land as a collective resource.

In-depth seminar

6 ECTS

FB06.085

WM Iva Marčetić Msc Arch.