Abstract

The commons is defined as a pragmatic process that crafts a series of social practices, values, and norms related to the management of common tangible and intangible resources. This article aims to contribute to the theorization of urban commons by simultaneously examining the universality of commons, as applied to urban contexts, and the particularities of urban settings, grounded in the empirical studies and theories of commons presented by Ostrom and others concerning traditional resources. It focuses on the constituent elements of commons—resources, communities, and institutions (commoning)—to articulate and scrutinize issues, thereby attempting a reinterpretation of urban commons. Key issues include the relationship between humans and resources traditionally explained through ‘private ownership and beyond,’ the prevalent view of traditional commons as closed versus urban commons as open, and common notions regarding commons communities. Regarding the relationship between resources and humans, this examination seeks to transcend the conceptual path dependency skewed towards private ownership, illuminating the public nature inherent in common resources to reinterpret the meaning of common resources. The ‘boundaries’ mentioned in commons theory as a basis for exclusivity are suggested not so much as markers of exclusion from resource use but rather as indicators of the scope within which self-organization and autonomy of resource users, that is, the operational domain of common resources, take place. Finally, commons communities are not merely assemblies based on identical beliefs but spaces for reciprocal relationships and trust-building through the interaction and learning among resource users, governed by autonomous norms. Furthermore, examining urban commons in connection with the contextual characteristics of the city (collectivity, diversity, complexity, connectivity) reveals that unlike traditional commons, urban commons transform the daily lives of city dwellers and the city itself into common resources, organizing each urban common as an independent yet interconnected management unit within an organic network. Future research is necessitated on practical approaches for igniting urban commons within cities saturated with capitalism and on institutionalizing collaborative relations between urban commons and representative democracy through city governance.