Common Space

Foreword
Introduction
Part I: Commoning Space

1. An Urban Archipelago of Enclosures
2. Expanding Commoning: In, Against and Beyond Capitalism?
Part II: Inhabited Common Spaces

3. Shared Heterotopias: Learning From the History of a Social Housing Complex in Athens
4. Housing and Urban Commoning
5. Metropolitan Streets as Contested Spaces
6. Occupied Squares, Societies in Movement
Part III: Envisaged common spaces

7. Practices of Defacement: Thresholds to Rediscovered Commons
8. Thought-images and Representations of the City as Commons
9. Representations of Space and Representations of Emancipation
Conclusion: Reinventing the City through Commoning

Stavrides, Stavros
Stavros Stavrides is an architect, activist and associate professor at the School of Architecture, National Technical University of Athens, where he teaches courses on social housing design, as well as a postgraduate course on the social meaning and significations of metropolitan experience. He publications on spatial theory include: The Symbolic Relation to Space (1990); Advertising and the Meaning of Space (1996); The Texture of Things (with E. Cotsou, 1996); From the City-Screen to the City-Stage (2002, National Book Award); Suspended Spaces of Alterity (2010) and Towards the City of Thresholds (2010).

'Stavrides escapes the Eurocentrism that often predominates in the literature on the urban commons ... The book will appeal not only to scholars across many disciplines, but also to activists who seek to engage with the significance of urban space for their political action.'
Urban Studies


'Common Space is the first of its kind ... an in-depth journey into the concept of common space ... relevant to students, academics and practitioners alike.'
Environment and Urbanization

'The Foreword hails Common Space as "the first theoretical book of its kind, the first book to problematise space as commons". And this is precisely where the value of Stavrides' contribution is found.'
3AM Magazine

'Stavrides provides a wonderful guide to how we can make urban space common. He draws from the history of social housing and the successes of contemporary protest movements to formulate an exciting political project.'
Michael Hardt, co-author of Empire; Multitude; and Commonwealth

'Stavros Stavrides has written a cutting-edge book on the commons and the city. A must read that inspires and challenges conventional thinking. Add it to your toolbox for the reinvention of the city through commoning.'
Massimo De Angelis, author of Omnia Sunt Communia and The Beginning of History

'A much-needed breath of fresh air. This is a book for all those interested in moving beyond the politics of enclosure, fear and individualism to a politics of hope, possibility and social inclusion in the contemporary city.'
Sophie Watson, The Open University

'Stavrides was one of the first to open my eyes to the importance of the urban commons. His writings are exciting, a valuable reference for urban activists around the world. He is right: the city is the place where we can and should truly reinvent the commons.'
Lieven De Cauter, co-editor of Art and Activism in the Age of Globalization

'The word from Athens is this: the commons is open