URBAN MOBILISATIONS IN A POST-CRISIS MEDITERRANEAN CITY THE CASE OF COMMONS IN PALERMO

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to analyse a number of practices and reflections on urban commons. It first problematizes the metropolis as epicentre of contemporary capitalism, then focuses on the Mediterranean city as paradigmatic of an urban context in which capitalism has developed through informal spatial practices. Finally, it analyses some experiences of common in Palermo, Sicily, and reflect on their socio-political structure and impact. It eventually argues that the consolidation of urban commons is taking place as a problematic process, since institutional actors and grassroots activists are attempting to establish a discursive hegemony based on different, at times clashing conceptions of commons.