Re-Commoning Democracy. A workshop with scholars/activists at the University of Coimbra, 10.16.2014

Re-Commoning Democracy. A workshop with scholars/activists at the University of Coimbra, 10.16.2014

ENTITLE members Stefania Barca, Rita Serra, and Irina Velicu from the Center for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra, are organizing an interactive workshop between scholars and activists on the topic of the commons and their role in democracy, to be held on October 16 in Coimbra, Portugal. The workshop is intended to explore the possibilities engendered by global mobilizations for reclaiming the commons and against dispossessions, through a consideration of theories and practices produced around the commons, and through commoning. In particular, we aim to address a set of interrelated issues:

• What are the forms of resistance and struggle against the commodification of resources, and how do these experiences sustain community resilience and reorganization?

• How may the practices of commoning generate novel community arrangements, envision new forms of citizenship, and transform the subject of neoliberal governance?

• What are the potentials of the claims for rights and bottom-up law-making towards a “democratization of democracy”?

• As the commons’ counter-narrative moves us beyond the private/public divide, what renewed notions of property, value, wealth, and welfare emerge from these processes?

• What constitutes the commons? How are coalitions for commoning being produced?

Guest speakers include ENTITLE members Gustavo Garcia-Lopez (postdoctoral fellow at ICTA-UAB) and Massimo Deangelis (professor at University East Longon); as well as Alberte Román, Cooperativa Cultural Trespés, Galicia; Luis Trota, Baldios de Vilarinho, Lousã, Portugal; Maria Hadjimichael, Initiative for the Protection of the Natural Coastline, Cyprus; Maria Rosaria Marella, University of Perugia (Costituente dei Beni Comuni); Massimo de Angelis, University of East London; Raluca Dan, ReGeneration, Romania; Rita Serra, CES/Entitle; and Sara Rocha, Transition Group of Coimbra, Portugal.

For more information please visit: http://www.ces.uc.pt/eventos/index.php?id=10482&id_lingua=1&pag=10484