Changing ways of being in common

• The changing ways of being together: From collective to common spaces in welfare housing  Many European versions of the welfare state (such as the Swedish model) included, on their smallest level, an infrastructure of “common spaces” in communal housing estates for tenants to meet, and organize themselves politically. Governmental planning saw them as important to the “democratic citizen”. Common spaces were one element of nationwide spatial and organizational structures to foster biopolitical governing and to reproduce the welfare society.  This round table discussion explores common spaces as a spatio-social concept inspired by the commons, as studied by the political economist Elinor Ostrom. We argue that common spaces have been fundamental to the welfare state until its neoliberalization in the early 1990s, and that the divorce of the spatial dimension from the bureaucratic apparatus has contributed to its demise. Elinor Ostrom conducted field studies on how local communities self-organize for managing shared natural resources, and how, over time, economically and ecologically sustainable rules were established. The concept of the commons and the welfare state model agree in some basic ideas but not in all. Both envision provision for the individual’s existential needs within the framework of collective rules, however, Ostrom’s commons depart in one crucial point from the welfare state ideal – her principle of the commons required the exclusion of unentitled parties.  Michal Hardt and Jacques Rancière suggest the common as a field of the sensible and perceptible, a field in which political recognition and decision-making takes place. Sensibilities and imaginaries of the common were embedded in the technocracy of the welfare state. Is it possible to regard the early welfare state as a conceptual framework for discussing networks of care for the future? This round table discussion proposes the welfare state model as a laboratory for exploring different modes of the common, from material spatiality, imaginaries of the political, to hands-on decision-making, policies and regulations. Keywords: welfare state housing, common spaces, communal housing, material spatiality, imaginaries of the political, decision-making policies Helena MattssonProfessor, Theory and History of ArchitectureKTH School of ArchitectureStockholmHelena.mattsson@arch.kth.se Meike SchalkAssociate Professor, Urban Design and theoryKTH School of ArchitectureStockholmMeike.schalk @arch.kth.se Sara Brolund CarvalhoArtist and architectStockholm Invited speakers: Dr. Irina DavidoviciSenior Researcher ETH Zurich Isabelle Doucet Professor History and Theory of ArchitectureChalmers University of Technology, Sweden Janina GosseyeSenior Researcher ETH Zurich Elek Krasny, Professor Vienna Art Academy Appolonia SustersicProfessor National Academy of the Arts

Subject headings

HUMANIORA  -- Konst -- Arkitektur (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Arts -- Architecture (hsv//eng)

Keyword

welfare state housing

common spaces

communal housing

material spatiality

imaginaries of the political

decision-making policies

History and Theory of Architecture

Arkitekturens historia och teori

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)