Tension Between the Common and the Public, and Between the Commons and the City Government as State, in Barcelona
* PhD Thesis: In, against, beyond and through the State. Limits and possibilities of Urban Commons in Barcelona. By Iolanda Bianchi. IUAV, Regional Planning and Public Policy; UAB, Politics, Policies and International Relations , 2018
Abstract
"In the last few decades the category of Common has re-emerged to draw a path of emancipation from capitalism without the State, reviving the thesis of autonomist Marxism. In this path, the Commons are autonomous social practices that produce emancipation, namely The Common, and through which The Common can be instituted. However, autonomist Common’s theories are characterized by a certain reticence to address how emancipation can take place without the State. Considering that the relation with the State in contemporary Western society is ineludible, the research aims to assess the role of the State in the autonomist Common’s emancipatory project. The analysis is set in the urban environment focusing on the relation between Urban Commons and the (local) State. The thesis hypothesizes that Urban Commons may need the support of the (local) State and this may flank the production of The Common with its own production of emancipation: The Public. Adopting a relational approach to the analysis of the case of Barcelona, the thesis demonstrates that Urban Commons need the (local) State. Many of them need the resources and the recognition of the (local) State, despite these may affect their autonomy, and all of them would benefit from a further support of the (local) State in terms of regulation, public policies and planning. However, despite the (local) State could theoretically flank The Common widening the spectrum of emancipation, it does not appear to do so. When the (local) State meets The Common it tends to replace it with The Public, and The Public tends to hinder and spatially marginalise The Common. Hence, Urban Commons should continue their struggle for autonomy. However, they should also struggle to obtain forms of support from the (local) State, preventing the latter from limiting their autonomy, transforming The Common into The Public, maintaining the hegemony of the production of emancipation and spatially marginalizing The Common. The thesis concludes sustaining that, as sustained by the autonomist Commons theories, the Common’s emancipatory project can be constructed without taking over the State but it cannot avoid to securing forms of support from the State."