The City as Commons: a Policy Reader, brings together 34 contributions and 31 authors which explore policy options and strategies for creating cities as commons for urban development and transformation. Each contribution explores a different aspect of city commoning and proposes strategies and policy recommendations based on existing projects from around the world.

The ‘City as a Commons’—the idea of urban commoning—is an emerging body of ideas and practices, that have the potential to transform the ways in which we experience and shape our urban environments, and indeed world.

This reader attempts to bring various dimensions of urban commoning into one place, in a format that is easy to digest, communicate and advocate for. The intent of the project is to provide a resource for urban commons advocates, which helps them (you) to articulate and strategize urban commons transformation projects in a variety of areas. It is by no means complete, as the urban commoning movement has only just begun, and the scope of this ‘reader’ is limited to who has contributed. It is merely a step on the journey toward our cities as commons.

Contributions include:

1. Design and the City Commons, Marco Bevolo


2. Active Transit & City Commons: Putting People Back into the City & the City Back into Place, Anthony James


3. Repurposing Public Spaces in a City as a Commons: the Library, Sandrina Burkhardt


4. Heritage and City Commons, Marta Botta


5. Sharing Cities: An Asset-based Approach to the Urban Commons, Darren Sharp


6. Community Currencies and City Commons, Michael Linton


7. Time Banks and City Commoning, Teppo Eskelinen


8. Construction Waste Transformation and City Commons, Scott Boylston


9. Platform Cooperatives for Democratic Cities, Nathan Schneider


10. Coworking: Challenges and Opportunities for a Prosperous and Fair New Economy, Julian Waters-Lynch


11. Orchards and the City as a Commons, Timothy Dolan


12. Cosmo-localism and Urban Commoning, José Ramos


13. City Commons and Energy Demand, Josh Floyd


14. It’s Time to Create Chambers of Commons, David Ronfeldt


15. Sharing Cities: Governing the City as Commons, Duncan McLaren and Julian Agyeman


16. Devolved Commons Governance for Cities, David Week


17. Anticipatory Governance and the City as a Commons, José Ramos


18. A Civic Union, David Week


19. Tax Reform for a Commons-based City, Karl Fitzgerald


20. Tax Delinquent Private Property and City Commons, Paula Z. Segal


21. Community Land Trusts, Karl Fitzgerald


22. The City as a Regional Commons, Colin Russo


23. Open Data and City Commons, Paula Z. Segal


24. Human Service Directory Data as a Commons, Greg Bloom


25. The Unseen City: Commons Oriented Cities and the Commons Beyond, Sharon Ede


26. Culture as Commons, Arlene Goldbard


27. Ubuntu as a Primer for City Commons, Charles Ikem


28. Cultural Intelligence (CQ) and the City as Commons, Cherie Minniecon


29. Bologna Celebrates One Year of a Bold Experiment in Urban Commoning, Neal Gorenflo


30. Milano, New Practices to Booster Social Innovation, Monica Bernardi


31. The Emergence of Assemblies of the Commons, Maïa Dereva


32. History and Evolution of the Chamber of Commons Idea, David Ronfeldt with Michel Bauwens


33. Big Blue Sky: Re-igniting the Art of Citizenship, Christine McDougall


34. Zaragoza Activa, an Ecosystem of Entrepreneurship, Social Innovation and Creativity, in an Old Sugar Factory, Raúl Oliván