Mission Communs de la ville de Grenoble

Imported and translated from the French P2P Foundation wiki (wikifr, May 2026 archive) as part of consolidating French-original content into the English wiki. Machine-assisted translation - please review.

Author

Xavier PERRIN is responsible for management consulting and decision-making information systems within the Mission d’Aide au Pilotage de la Ville de Grenoble. Former general director of public services, he has contributed to the state's recognition of structural challenges in specific territories, particularly with island communities. He led the first ISO 26000 certification of a French organization committed to social responsibility. Since summer 2018, he has been the project director for "commons" in Grenoble.

Summary

New partnerships between local public organizations and user and citizen collectives are emerging and disrupting the practices of territorial technicians: assignments of buildings as third places, provision of public spaces for citizens to reclaim the city, increasingly common "occasional collaborations" between users and citizens. In very simple terms, a "common," understood as the mastery of a recognized commons by an open community, thus offers new types of partnerships between communities and active citizens.

A "commons" mission created in 2018 is tasked with identifying the materiality of Grenoble's commons, valuing them, and developing them. Supported by the University, in network with public partners and commoners, the mission organizes open workshops and co-pilots with the 27th region an European educational tour inviting local government agents (Brest, Grenoble, Lille) to question their practices with citizens. The "publicly accessible worksites," shared gardens, participatory budgets, and workshops set a new requirement for participation and a framework of co-administration or "shared administration" as Italy has inscribed in its constitution. More than just tools, they reveal new values of public hospitality and care for the city.

Towards an "commons" horizon in Grenoble to co-administer the city

Among the new collectives reclaiming the city, a "commons" can be defined as a user community accessible to various actors (public, private, users, citizens, businesses,...) that sets transparent governance rules, inclusion, management, and conflict resolution for managing and preserving all types of resources or goods, both material (forest, water, buildings, public spaces, etc.) and immaterial (knowledge, creation, memory, etc.). In very simplified terms, a "commons" is the mastery of a common good identified as such by an open community. It relies on a set of collaborative and contributory practices. The commons are not only defined by free and shared access but also by what we take care of together. It is primarily a practice. This is a collective and political choice, and pyramid-shaped public organizations cannot escape this deep transition movement. Public horizons now look towards other common horizons.

The role of the City is to design a framework that supports the existence of commons and promotes their emergence. The aim is to facilitate the development of activities beyond exclusively private or exclusively public fields, shared or co-constructed activities, and modes of organization where users of a resource are also managers.

A local government can be considered a member of the commons, as it places at the heart of its policies the active preservation of "common goods" and greater horizontality in the governance of public policies. Italian jurist Ugo Mattei presents the commons as resources that are both about being and having: “We do not have a common good, we are a common good”. The municipality of Grenoble has thus defined its "political compass" in three axes: ensuring securities and fundamental rights, cherishing common goods and the living world, and giving each person the freedom to contribute. Commons are at the heart of this new “public hospitality” where the organization becomes an animator or even contributes to the emergence of communities of actors.

In this spirit, a "Commons" mission was requested in July 2018 by Anne-Sophie Olmos, municipal councilor delegated to management control and public procurement, to identify the materiality of Grenoble's commons, value them, and develop them.

From Grenoble Common Goods to Commons

The political command sets the objectives of accompanying the evolution of practices, those of institutions as well as citizens, by raising awareness among residents, public service actors, associations, and companies about "what belongs to us in common and what we can/must manage together" and communicating and dialoguing around "what our commons are", identifying their current modes of management. It also involves valuing existing initiatives within the City and in Grenoble on the commons and what allows for collective management of commons. To this end, it is necessary to support the evolution of commons management towards more citizen participation by prioritizing co-construction" within a shared administration. This can concern the city's own services, its satellites, and all external actors from civil society and business.

Grenoble is known for being a land of boldnesses, scientific innovation, a territory that stands out. Cradle of the French Revolution, it is also a territory of social innovation: social insurance, mutualism, family planning, and now welcoming migrants make it a land of solidarity. The city's history is thus tinged with spicy anecdotes, such as one in 1851, when the mayor, inspired by the Geneva experience, opened a cooperative restaurant to feed workers at affordable prices against the prefectural advice; the restaurant existed for nearly a century. The City of Grenoble is also renowned for having since the 19th century ensured strong control over its resources: the water of Grenoble was the subject of fierce struggles led by citizens' collectives, opposition elected officials, and employees of an old municipal company to maintain public control and ensure good management; the Company of Heating and Gas and Electricity of Grenoble (GEG) are nationally recognized operators. This management of commons has made, without saying it in so many words, Grenoble a city managed "in common".

The scope of the mission is therefore vast. On one hand, it is entirely cross-cutting to municipal organization by involving all concerned services, both resources and operational ones. On the other hand, it goes beyond it by integrating its satellites carrying the commons of water, energy, housing, mobility, urban heating, their user communities, and citizens.

A theme offering ultimately unlimited means

The "Commons" mission initially has few resources: a fifth of a position taken for project management within the internal control department which became an aid to steering mission, and one intern. A function was targeted as a guarantor of both internal and external performance of all public policies and associated good governance methods, recognized for its cross-cutting nature, and acting as a 'business partner' towards resource and operational directions. Nonetheless, and to complement these means, the commons theme will soon reveal prodigious resources internally, on the ground, and through networks of 'commoners' and national and European partners.

Internally, the project team currently brings together about fifteen coordinators and agents from legal affairs departments, CCAS (Social Action and Solidarity Center), culture, documentation, international relations, territorial action policies in neighborhoods and participation, environment, and associations.

Thanks to the gathered skills and fields of intervention covered, this group contributes to implementing the project and also participates in designing tools. The documentation and communication services have thus collected elements to create an exhibition on the history of Grenoble's commons (water, energy, mutualism,...), while the legal department explores and secures new contractual devices, etc.

The collaboration of agents from other communities has further complemented these means through the acquisition of a European Erasmus+ project named Enacting the commons / les communs en acte, submitted by a consortium around La 27ème région. The mission was thus enriched to include co-organizing this educational tour in Europe, which facilitates networking and rich exchanges with colleagues from Brest city and Lille metropole, partner associations (Anis, Pop, Esopa, Savoir com1), or even associated technicians from a so-called mirror group (City of Nantes, Regional Public Innovation Laboratory in Brittany, Resilience Mission of the City of Paris...).

The theme of commons finally reveals a vast network to rely on, composed of researchers, activists, militants, and commoners: during one of these gatherings organized in Grenoble in August 2018, a commonscamp brought together networks of commoners (Remix the commons, La Coop des communs, ...), an Italian research laboratory (Labsus,...), specialists in temporary occupation from Brussels (Communa, winner of Belgium's ESS prize), activist lawyers from Naples, or even simple territorial technicians present, such as Olivier Jaspart, one of the most advanced administrative lawyers on the subject. To put it briefly, the commons are bustling with activity and not a month goes by without a national or European event being organized.

A partnership that has become essential with the University

Responding to a genuine need for interdisciplinary exchange and experimentation fields for researchers and students, the mission is increasingly articulated with Grenoble Alpes University.

During the "Biennale of Transition Cities" in February 2019, students from Sciences Po Grenoble (IEP) in Social and Solidarity Economy, coached by their professor Amélie Artis, and public law jurists from the Territorial Legal Clinic of the Law School, led by Master's program director Nicolas Kada, responded to our request and conducted very notable workshops for the public with their responsiveness and the subtlety of their analyses. 60 students in social and solidarity economy carried out field surveys while 16 law students analyzed issues in partnership with the legal department of the City of Grenoble: collaboration pacts, permits to greenify, shared fridges, status and administrative responsibility disrupted by these collaborations with users and citizens. Inspired by Geneviève Fontaine's research (who emphasizes inclusion and openness criteria, she speaks of "commons of empowerment"), the students and interns of the mission were able to develop an analytical framework and conduct a preliminary diagnosis of Grenoble's commons.

Building on this collaboration, Université Grenoble Alpes now wishes to offer a broader framework for reflection and sharing on the commons by creating a recurring "Summer University" in the form of open cooperations and research-action work. Much more horizontal than the chair system, this summer university will be open to other disciplines and will be part of the Biennale where the commons will take an important place. The targeted themes for July 2-4, 2020, will include food, health, environment, and culture.

But these partnerships are not limited to the national level, as the mission is part of the European dynamics of the commons.

Being the Interface of a Deep European Dynamic

Co-pilot of the European edutour project Enacting the commons, the city of Grenoble has particularly invested in organizing the first Italian and Belgian stages. The case studies from Bologna and Turin were especially inspiring for the City, which had targeted the analysis of cooperation pacts between administration and citizens.

Enshrined in the Italian constitution, shared administration is established with the introduction of horizontal subsidiarity: « The State, regions, metropolitan cities, provinces and municipalities commit to supporting autonomous citizen initiatives, individual or collective, so that they can carry out activities of general interest based on the principle of subsidiarity » (art. 118 §4). Declined into regulations then into "cooperation pacts" in about a hundred Italian cities, this principle allows for « citizens to move from their passive role as recipients of administration to become co-administrators, active subjects who, by integrating the resources they bring with those available to the administration, assume part of the responsibility in solving general interest problems » According to Gregorio Arena, a law professor and founder of Labsus, the laboratory for horizontal subsidiarity.

The pacts constitute a new tool for rethinking the relationship between Italian administrations and citizens. They allow moving beyond traditional frameworks and questioning projects that are a priori classical and found in France: providing premises to an association, organizing a trail race, animating a neighborhood house, making part of a green space available for creating a vegetable garden...

They also present important innovative aspects that are inspiring. The promotion of citizen initiative, the empowerment, by positioning citizens as collaborators of the community through a single mechanism to take care of a common good is a fundamental element. The possibility of concluding pacts with informal groups of citizens, not organized into associations, and entrusting them with responsibilities in maintaining and managing a commons is an undeniable asset of this system. These pacts recreate trust between administration and citizens. Finally, the Italian legal context places the notion of commons itself as legitimate for citizens invited to participate in the administration of these goods alongside municipal authorities.

As Donato di Memmo, our Italian counterpart responsible for the Shared Administration Service of the City of Bologna, summarizes: « We know that citizens possess many resources to contribute to making this city a more beautiful and well-maintained place. The duty of public administration is to connect these resources and support the ideas of citizens ».

The commons paradigm reinforces existing partnership mechanisms with users and citizens

In Grenoble, many co-construction mechanisms exist. The Jardinons nos rues operation is the provision of collective gardening spaces in public areas, identified by the City or, as in Bologna, by resident or active citizens in their community: city technicians prepare the spaces (planting pits on sidewalks, planters or pots, existing green spaces) and citizens take care of them: planting and management are their responsibility, while the city provides advice, training, and even funding. 75 requests have been finalized, with more than 130 gardened spaces. More social in nature, the Shared Gardens are cross-departmental projects addressing places of life, public spaces whose management is taken over by residents; actions combine public space management with health and prevention policies. La Rue aux enfants leads to closing streets to motorized traffic (temporarily or permanently) where children and young people can express themselves, do nothing, play freely, safely, and in peace.

The Publicly Open Workshops (COP) turn public spaces – "the common good par excellence" according to Franck Quéré, head of the "Public Space and Citizenship" department, into commons by involving citizens. This initiative launched in 2018 allowed for 13 realizations within a year, involving about 300 citizens. "The goal is to encourage each person's ability to act concretely and directly on their living environment, to design temporary or permanent spaces that conform to the uses and desires of residents. The COP are a simple and friendly tool that allows for co-constructing the city with its inhabitants by collectively reflecting on how they wish to use public spaces. Similarly, the COP provide concrete opportunities for each person to express their creativity, talents, or curiosity alongside various volunteers who are committed to bringing life to their neighborhoods in an atmosphere of cooperation." Among the projects, a huge children's playground (La Dragonne) set up by residents, the renovation of a MJC courtyard, the creation of seating around a talking tree or a bicycle storage facility, ground paintings, urban furniture fabrication...

The most well-known initiative is that of Participatory Budgets, an approach initiated by the City of Grenoble in 2015. Each year it allows residents over 16 years old, collectives, and associations to propose projects. This cumulative €4M investment budget contributes to transforming the city: since 2015, 47 projects have been selected throughout the city, including children's playgrounds, a climbing wall, an outdoor theater, rooftop gardens, a solidarity welcome center, calmer streets, urban furniture along the Isère banks. Whenever possible (mainly for safety reasons), citizens are involved in project implementation through participatory workshops (assembly or construction of playground equipment, urban furniture, garden installations, creation of murals) but they also contribute to managing projects (chicken coops, shared gardens, orchards, pigeon contraceptive devices, beehives,...).

Participation is no longer just about associating with consultation processes or orders made to the administration for the purpose of realizing facilities. It gives meaning and creates cooperation within an even more participatory local democracy. Through co-construction, it also outlines new public-commons partnerships and approaches the Bolognese model of shared governance.

Co-administering the city to take care of it: a new paradigm

Co-governance restores trust between stakeholders, turns the user into an active citizen, and allows them to reclaim their City. On the administrative side, it leads to crossing the expertise of use with that of technicians. This is not always simple between technicians and citizens and brings more humility and respect. It makes project-based work necessary: the Public Spaces and Citizenship service plays more or less the role of an interface for shared governance as in Donato di Memmo's administration in Bologna. It disrupts silo response logics and invites technicians from two, four, or even more departments to work together increasingly, when it is not about interfacing with metropolitan services or those of the CCAS. It questions the role of deputy and sectoral general management in their ability to facilitate these cross-sector collaborations, as well as that of the directions in offering spaces and means for exploratory processes and in fine very engaging ones.

Legal experts and project managers are heavily involved in securing while making new citizen intervention modalities possible: the status of occasional public service worker is pushed to its limits, citizens' insertion into consultation phases or certain calls for applications (Gren’ de projet for managing vacant buildings) are experimental. These sidesteps to better co-administer are numerous and little valued, yet agents invest a lot to make them possible. During the Biennale of Transitioning Cities, citizens took the time to thank the pilots of the aforementioned operations at the end of a workshop on public organization transformation organized with the 27th region.

This led us, with Louise Guillot from the 27th region and territorial lawyer Olivier Jaspart, to co-sign a column to encourage legal creativity and organize the first hackathon on these new partnerships at Super public. Others are planned. The need is indeed great to promote and make known these initiatives that offer more visibility to co-administration among general directors, professional associations or elected officials, and communities of technicians. At the CNFPT's Summer Universities for Public Innovation, I supported a challenge by a local authority, Caluire-et-Cuire, whose approach to resolving usage conflicts in a neighborhood could draw inspiration from the commons, as we proposed with Nathalie Arnould from the Design City of Saint-Etienne and Emmanuelle Mazeaud, secretary general of this municipality.

Public-commons partnerships are not limited to managing public spaces: in Grenoble, they can extend into food with the inter-territorial food project, health through the work of 'health peers' or health communities, energy with citizen photovoltaic power plants, and housing with a Solidarity Land Office that aligns with the social policies of Community land trust.

They are neither disguised outsourcing nor shadows of Big Society or reincarnations of new public management. And while some Neapolitan commongers fear that "citizens will only be recognized as partners in their capacity as carpenters or gardeners", one can a contrario opt for the vision of another Neapolitan, Gilda Farrel, former DG of the Council of Europe, who prefers "legitimizing the right to experiment in public space with the goal of an ascending renewal (from bottom to top) rather than channeling citizen initiatives into administrative gears, only resorting to them when needed".

Invited by the 'commons' mission during the Biennale des Villes en transition, she points out: « It is about defending our world - which we consider an achievement - to coexist differently. I think that commons open up a caring society (David Graeber): a "caring society", and caring means getting out of material indifference […] While we think we have the right to destroy or waste what is ours, commons invite us to reflect on how to “care”, take care of objects, food, water, culture, heritage… »

Other researchers and academics are even more ambitious: Benjamin Coriat believes that these experiments constitute a renewal of local public service, where some parts of the local administration can be managed as commons in the long term.