Part of a series of open calls, Liminal commons invites interventions and reflections from the streets, fields, factories and other sites of – sometimes fleeting – struggles.

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Liminal commons | Submission Guidelines

Time is hardly ever explicitly concerned in the study of the commons. Research on the commons is focused on enduring, long-lived systems, from centuries-long institutions managing aquifers or forests to years-long community gardens or open software. Stability and reproduction over time are seen as a marker of the ‘success’ of the commons. From Ostrom’s rules for managing the commons to Bollier’s and Helfrich’s patterns of commoning, researchers search for fundamental attributes that contribute to the sustainability of a commons over time. What about commons, though, that are short-lived yet have significant impacts on commoners and environments? How do we make sense of such commons?

Refugee camps, climate camps or summer camps, symbolic occupations, self-organized street parties and festivals, grassroots artistic interventions, and temporary commoning practices in disaster zones; these are sites that involve intense moments of commoning, people collaborating and sharing resources and efforts for a limited time. What outcomes and effects do such commons have? What attributes and processes determine the effectiveness of such temporary (liminal) commons?

The Commoner, our independent journal of “other values”, invites short and long articles, field reports, multimedia contributions, songs and poems that engage with issues of temporality and transformation in commoning struggles with a particular focus on their political, cultural, biographical, and social outcomes. We cannot afford to regard all temporary commons as failed. Let’s reflect on their role, relationality, and transitoriness in our journey of social transformation.