{"id":4136,"date":"2020-12-22T13:14:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-22T13:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cedos.org.ua\/researches\/restrukturyzatsiia-zrostannia-cherez-antyzrostannia-perspektyvy-doslidzhennia-spilnykh-blah-u-krainakh-skhidnoho-partnerstva-2\/"},"modified":"2020-12-22T13:14:00","modified_gmt":"2020-12-22T13:14:00","slug":"restrukturyzatsiia-zrostannia-cherez-antyzrostannia-perspektyvy-doslidzhennia-spilnykh-blah-u-krainakh-skhidnoho-partnerstva","status":"publish","type":"researches","link":"https:\/\/cedos.org.ua\/en\/researches\/restrukturyzatsiia-zrostannia-cherez-antyzrostannia-perspektyvy-doslidzhennia-spilnykh-blah-u-krainakh-skhidnoho-partnerstva\/","title":{"rendered":"Restructuring growth through degrowth. Setting up the research agenda of commons in the Eastern Partnership countries"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Degrowth and its relations with development<\/h2>\n<p>This article started with an&nbsp;attempt to&nbsp;outline the underlying conditions for transformation into degrowth between two different cities in&nbsp;Eastern Partnership (EP) countries. The lack of&nbsp;literature on&nbsp;degrowth in&nbsp;EP cities and in&nbsp;general has prompted&nbsp;us to&nbsp;attempt and build a&nbsp;link between the existing degrowth literature and the context of&nbsp;the&nbsp;EP countries. Once we&nbsp;have articulated the premises of&nbsp;transition to&nbsp;degrowth, we&nbsp;will also be&nbsp;looking at&nbsp;what the role of&nbsp;commons and commoning can be&nbsp;in&nbsp;the urban context of&nbsp;the region. Given the restrictions in&nbsp;time and very limited access to&nbsp;the field, this article lays an&nbsp;exploratory ground for further research agenda and presents itself as&nbsp;a&nbsp;work in&nbsp;progress. Nevertheless, it&nbsp;provides an&nbsp;overview of&nbsp;literature and practices on&nbsp;degrowth and commoning in&nbsp;the&nbsp;EP countries and suggests further action and research points in&nbsp;the conclusion.<\/p>\n<p>Degrowth has been gaining significant attention among academicians and social movements as&nbsp;an&nbsp;alternative to&nbsp;growth in&nbsp;development. <strong>Degrowth is&nbsp;viewed as&nbsp;a&nbsp;deliberate reduction of&nbsp;resource and energy use for the purpose of&nbsp;a&nbsp;balanced economy in&nbsp;a&nbsp;living world, which also targets inequality reduction and improvement of&nbsp;well-being<\/strong> (Hickel, 2020). The key argument of&nbsp;the concept is&nbsp;that a&nbsp;reduction in&nbsp;consumption does not mean a&nbsp;decrease in&nbsp;well-being. Rather, degrowth is&nbsp;a&nbsp;critique of&nbsp;the quantitative and nominal idea of&nbsp;exponential growth, and it&nbsp;advocates the need for socio-ecological transformation towards a&nbsp;socially just and environmentally sound society by&nbsp;addressing rising inequality, emissions, and depletion of&nbsp;resources.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The pioneers of&nbsp;degrowth are scholars from the 1970s, such as&nbsp;Andr&eacute; Gorz and Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen <\/strong>(Gorz 1991; Georgescu-Roegen 1979). The concept regained relevance first in&nbsp;Western Europe at&nbsp;the beginning of&nbsp;the new millennium, followed by&nbsp;both activist movements (the strong degrowth activist movements) and academic circles (the work of&nbsp;the French scholar Serge Latouche (2010)). Nowadays, there is&nbsp;a&nbsp;broader and diverse degrowth community mainly located in&nbsp;Germany, France, Spain, Canada, as&nbsp;well as&nbsp;in&nbsp;some Latin American countries.<\/p>\n<p>A&nbsp;recent study (Cosme et&nbsp;al, 2017) examining 128 peer-reviewed journals and policies on&nbsp;degrowth debates classifies degrowth agenda proposals into <strong>three broad goals:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>reduce the environmental impact of&nbsp;human activities;<\/li>\n<li>redistribute income and wealth both within and between countries;&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>promote the transition from a&nbsp;materialistic to&nbsp;a&nbsp;convivial and participatory society.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Despite the grassroots origins of&nbsp;degrowth, <strong>many proposals suggest the need for a&nbsp;high level of&nbsp;state intervention indicating national top-down approaches<\/strong>, focusing on&nbsp;government as&nbsp;a&nbsp;major driver of&nbsp;change, rather than local bottom-up approaches.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Generally, degrowth proposals are largely debated and created within and for the Global North<\/strong>. Dominant literature suggests that controlled economic degrowth is&nbsp;best applicable in&nbsp;the Global North, while for the South, economic growth would be&nbsp;a&nbsp;requirement. Perceptions of&nbsp;the development in&nbsp;the Global South counterbalance the fact that degrowth literature and agenda is&nbsp;mainly generated from highly industrialized and high-income countries (Weiss and Cattaneo, 2017). The clash of&nbsp;perception of&nbsp;lifestyles and the notion of&nbsp;justice urges strong reasoning to&nbsp;incorporate the perspectives of&nbsp;developing countries into the degrowth agenda (Muraca, 2012). The concern lies around the motivation for developing economies to&nbsp;increase resource and energy use in&nbsp;order to&nbsp;meet economic and social needs. In&nbsp;particular, the key social movements have concerns about the concept in&nbsp;the Global South. <strong>The major argument on&nbsp;their side is&nbsp;that these economies need sustainable industrialization and they have the &laquo;right to&nbsp;develop&raquo;<\/strong> (Labajos et&nbsp;al, 2019).<\/p>\n<p>Despite this, more voices are questioning the arguments that give economic growth a&nbsp;central place in&nbsp;political discussions, <strong>suggesting that this type of&nbsp;criticism could be&nbsp;liberating for many parts (Global South) of&nbsp;the world<\/strong> (Muraca 2014). Acosta (2013) argues that growth must be&nbsp;differentiated into &laquo;good and bad growth&raquo; in&nbsp;the Global South, by&nbsp;taking into account real socio-ecological needs. The degrowth transformation should affect not only institutional but also social infrastructures. Therefore, the idea of&nbsp;the analytical note is&nbsp;not about imposing the knowledge of&nbsp;degrowth (policies and practices) onto the Global South as&nbsp;a&nbsp;proposal originating in&nbsp;the Global North, but rather to&nbsp;open up&nbsp;a&nbsp;conceptual discussion for countries in&nbsp;the Global South to&nbsp;bring up&nbsp;their own practices, discourses and understandings of&nbsp;well-being, metabolic life on&nbsp;the planet (&laquo;planetary boundaries&raquo;) and conviviality.<\/p>\n<h2>Degrowth discourse in&nbsp;Eastern Partnership countries<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Unlike other Global South countries, growth has never been challenged in&nbsp;the&nbsp;EP countries;<\/strong> rather, it&nbsp;has been treated as&nbsp;a&nbsp;vital ingredient for development. The post-socialist transition since the end of&nbsp;the 1980s in&nbsp;the current&nbsp;EP countries has led the countries towards the capitalist economy. It&nbsp;has generally followed a&nbsp;neoclassical approach, in&nbsp;which the market is&nbsp;viewed as&nbsp;the solution to&nbsp;all dilemmas, including social and environmental problems. Achieving a&nbsp;&laquo;well-functioning market economy&raquo; has been viewed as&nbsp;the ultimate economic transition, after which the countries would gain the &laquo;developed&raquo; and &laquo;high-income&raquo; status, and development challenges could be&nbsp;largely overcome.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Economic growth also seems to&nbsp;be&nbsp;a&nbsp;popular approach among the wider population.<\/strong>&nbsp;59% of&nbsp;the respondents of&nbsp;the World Values Survey (WVS) 2017-2020 wave from Azerbaijan, 49% from Armenia, 69% from Belarus, 63% from Georgia, and&nbsp;53% from Ukraine mentioned a&nbsp;high level of&nbsp;economic growth as&nbsp;their first choice among the aims of&nbsp;the country.<\/p>\n<p>Economic growth and high productivity are not strangers to&nbsp;the economic development model of&nbsp;these countries, as&nbsp;state-led centralized economic development plans regarded industrialization as&nbsp;a&nbsp;driver of&nbsp;abundance and wellbeing (Mazurski, 1991). <strong>The environment, most of&nbsp;the time, was compromised to&nbsp;make room for large-scale energy-intensive industries, and the concerns of&nbsp;resource scarcity and environmental degradation were not dominant on&nbsp;the agenda.<\/strong> Economic reforms in&nbsp;the &lsquo;90s and early 2000s in&nbsp;post-communist societies, such as&nbsp;mass privatization of&nbsp;industrial enterprises, housing, commons, resources and services and attracting multinational investment, have largely focused on&nbsp;solving the economic problems, in&nbsp;terms of&nbsp;achieving efficiency and increasing industrialization, whereas environmental, resource scarcity and social concerns have been downplayed.<\/p>\n<p>According to&nbsp;the Environmental Performance Index 2020 (see Table&nbsp;1), which also takes into account the social and institutional capacity for environmental management, none of&nbsp;the&nbsp;EP countries have been ranked among the 50&nbsp;best-performing countries. Although some countries have improved their environmental sustainability over the years (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Ukraine), others have seen a&nbsp;deterioration in&nbsp;their score (Moldova, Georgia).<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" longdesc=\"\" src=\"\/ckeditor_assets\/pictures\/417\/original_image1.jpg\" style=\"width: 1026px; height: 554px;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Table 1. Source: Environmental Performance Index (2020).<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>On&nbsp;that note, perspectives from the&nbsp;EP countries are underrepresented in&nbsp;the academic and policy debates around degrowth.<\/strong> Nonetheless, certain domains in&nbsp;the cities of&nbsp;the&nbsp;EP countries have remained unaffected by&nbsp;commodification and marketisation, which allows an&nbsp;examination of&nbsp;bottom-up (non-institutionalized) practices that might fit well into the degrowth agenda.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Degrowth and Commons in&nbsp;EP&nbsp;Countries survey,<\/strong> conducted by&nbsp;us for this analytical note, has presented inconclusive but intriguing food for thought. The total number of&nbsp;participants were 37, 27&nbsp;from Azerbaijan, the other 10&nbsp;from Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova, and Belarus. The respondents were from grassroots initiatives, civil society, and academia, working with gender equality, environmental and climate justice, economic-social development, urbanistic issues, and the overwhelming majority are from the urban settings of&nbsp;the&nbsp;EP countries. The survey was conducted online, distributed via social media and personal networks. It&nbsp;was laid out in&nbsp;two parts. The first part was about degrowth, exploring the perception of&nbsp;the concept by&nbsp;the participants and collecting their insights into more critical development. The perception of&nbsp;commons was addressed in&nbsp;the second part, depicting the visual and conceptual recognition of&nbsp;commons by&nbsp;the respondents. It&nbsp;should be&nbsp;noted that the <strong>sample and findings of&nbsp;the survey are not representative due to&nbsp;the availability-based method of&nbsp;sampling for the survey, which usually happens given the limited time frame of&nbsp;the research and the limited pool availability for a&nbsp;more representative sampling. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The majority of&nbsp;the participants mentioned that they were <strong>generally familiar with the concept of&nbsp;degrowth<\/strong>, and the source of&nbsp;familiarity with the concept was through a&nbsp;colleague\/friend and through reading an&nbsp;article on&nbsp;the topic. In&nbsp;addition, the majority of&nbsp;the respondents mentioned that they would be&nbsp;willing to&nbsp;be&nbsp;part of&nbsp;an&nbsp;initiative, research, or&nbsp;collective that works with degrowth issues. In&nbsp;contrast, while answering the question on&nbsp;the transformation needed for a&nbsp;just and sustainable coexistence in&nbsp;their country, the majority of&nbsp;the respondents either ranked the answer &laquo;More economic growth, prosperity, international investment and increased domestic production&raquo; higher than &laquo;Transition into a&nbsp;more cooperation-based, degrowth society that provides for everyone&rsquo;s basic needs and contributes to&nbsp;the decrease of&nbsp;global production &amp;&nbsp;consumption patterns,&raquo; or&nbsp;skipped this question.<\/p>\n<p>Another noteworthy observation would be&nbsp;the participants&rsquo; <strong>prioritization patterns in&nbsp;reply to&nbsp;questions regarding the role of&nbsp;degrowth<\/strong>. While the majority of&nbsp;the participants consider degrowth to&nbsp;be&nbsp;a&nbsp;viable way of&nbsp;preventing the climate crisis, a&nbsp;smaller percentage see it&nbsp;as&nbsp;a&nbsp;transition towards better well-being for the people. Again, as&nbsp;this survey was meant to&nbsp;be&nbsp;descriptive and is&nbsp;not representative, we&nbsp;cannot draw firm conclusions on&nbsp;the perceptions of&nbsp;degrowth among the respondents; however, we&nbsp;can see that there is&nbsp;a&nbsp;discrepancy in&nbsp;the aforementioned answers (the ratings of&nbsp;answers to&nbsp;transformation-related questions), and there is&nbsp;a&nbsp;willingness to&nbsp;learn more about degrowth, which could be&nbsp;explored further from the qualitative perspective.<\/p>\n<h2>Degrowth within cities: The role of&nbsp;commons<\/h2>\n<p>While the research on&nbsp;the degrowth transition in&nbsp;cities is&nbsp;still at&nbsp;a&nbsp;nascent stage, literature focusing on&nbsp;EP cities is&nbsp;almost non-existent. The research about the role of&nbsp;the cities and the implications of&nbsp;the transition to&nbsp;degrowth mainly focuses on&nbsp;articulating the spatial domains of&nbsp;the process and the institutional setup. For instance, according to&nbsp;W&aring;chter (2013), the role of&nbsp;institutions dealing with spatial planning could be&nbsp;in&nbsp;leading the energy transition; establishing sustainable land use and settlement practices; creating infrastructures necessary for building up&nbsp;social capital.<\/p>\n<p>In&nbsp;his book <em>Unlocking Sustainable Cities<\/em>, Paul Chatterton lays out the four key domains that would lead cities into a&nbsp;sustainable future: the car-free city; the post-carbon city; the bio city; the common city.<\/p>\n<p>At&nbsp;most, the cities within the&nbsp;EP geography have been discussed in&nbsp;the context of&nbsp;<strong>shrinking cities<\/strong> (<a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/the-challenges-of-degrowth-in-cities-110867\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Florentin<\/a>, 2019; Silverman, 2020). This body of&nbsp;literature looks into neighborhoods, cities, or&nbsp;even entire metropolitan areas which are experiencing a&nbsp;structural crisis involving a&nbsp;steep population decline, economic downturn, loss of&nbsp;employment, and social issues (Martinez et&nbsp;al., 2012). Structural demographic shifts combined with political-economic instability, demographic shifts related to&nbsp;fertility rates, aging populations, declining household sizes, and lower levels of&nbsp;immigration are cited as&nbsp;the main factors behind the &laquo;shrinkage&raquo; of&nbsp;cities in&nbsp;the post-Soviet bloc (Rieniets, 2009).<\/p>\n<p>Given that the process of&nbsp;degrowth takes place in&nbsp;shrinking cities in&nbsp;some form, an&nbsp;analysis of&nbsp;the phenomenon and of&nbsp;the responses to&nbsp;it&nbsp;in&nbsp;different national contexts could provide a&nbsp;reference for defining the future of&nbsp;the degrowth agenda. <strong>However, in&nbsp;this paper, we&nbsp;attempt to&nbsp;cover degrowth not as&nbsp;a&nbsp;crisis scenario but as&nbsp;a&nbsp;hopeful project.<\/strong> Thus, we&nbsp;would like to&nbsp;look at&nbsp;the process of&nbsp;transformation from the broader perspective of&nbsp;a&nbsp;complete remaking of&nbsp;the present economic, social, political, geographical, and cultural systems.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The proliferation of&nbsp;commons is&nbsp;one of&nbsp;the cornerstones in&nbsp;the spatial domain of&nbsp;a&nbsp;degrowth society.<\/strong> A&nbsp;complete transformation into a&nbsp;degrowth society requires a&nbsp;&laquo;different form of&nbsp;livelihood production,&raquo; and commons are often suggested to&nbsp;be&nbsp;the form of&nbsp;livelihood production for a&nbsp;sustainable and just society (Euler, 2018). &laquo;Commoning generates and circulates social wealth in&nbsp;ways that have the potential to&nbsp;erode private property relations, individualism and the exchange value of&nbsp;commodities&raquo; (Chatterton, 2019).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Moreover, commons have the potential to&nbsp;foster cooperation, collective action, and to&nbsp;create solidarity networks. <\/strong>In&nbsp;an&nbsp;exploration of&nbsp;the potential of&nbsp;commons in&nbsp;the&nbsp;EP countries, a&nbsp;reverse stance could also be&nbsp;taken, based on&nbsp;the premises of&nbsp;the path-dependency theory. A&nbsp;look back at&nbsp;the historical setup of&nbsp;formal and informal institutions would provide space for exploring the basis for the creation of&nbsp;commons in&nbsp;the urban areas of&nbsp;the&nbsp;EP countries.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Commons are self-planned and self-organized forms&nbsp;of (re)production created by&nbsp;people and existing beyond the structures of&nbsp;the state and the market<\/strong> (Bollier and Helfrich, 2012). Commons were introduced into academic discussions in&nbsp;political economy by&nbsp;Elinor Ostrom, who described them as&nbsp;social practices, traditions, and communication processes through which people manage their shared resources. According to&nbsp;Euler (2018), something becomes a&nbsp;part of&nbsp;commons only if&nbsp;people relate to&nbsp;it&nbsp;in&nbsp;a&nbsp;particular way, namely through commoning.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Commoning in&nbsp;urban settings is&nbsp;a&nbsp;collective form of&nbsp;organization around the production of&nbsp;non-commodified spaces or&nbsp;goods that are accessible to&nbsp;a&nbsp;wider community. <\/strong>Commons largely rely on&nbsp;voluntary contributions motivated by&nbsp;the notion of&nbsp;doing good for other people today with a&nbsp;belief that when one needs something at&nbsp;another time, this will be&nbsp;provided to&nbsp;him\/her. The challenge in&nbsp;researching commons without on-the-ground exposure and presence is&nbsp;that, quite often, they can be&nbsp;invisible, as&nbsp;they are based on&nbsp;self-governance and shared responsibilities, rather than documented legal agreements or&nbsp;bureaucratic decisions (Hellfrich and Bollier, p.119).<\/p>\n<p><strong>In&nbsp;order for commons to&nbsp;become scalable and to&nbsp;have the capacity to&nbsp;respond to&nbsp;a&nbsp;spectrum of&nbsp;needs, there should be&nbsp;a&nbsp;dynamic and complex network of&nbsp;commons. <\/strong>Otherwise, commoning will continue to&nbsp;produce goods within the capitalist system, remaining dependent on&nbsp;the resources it&nbsp;provides, and will often have to&nbsp;purchase goods that are not available in&nbsp;the common realm of&nbsp;production. Based on&nbsp;this, one can argue that the currently existing commons projects might be&nbsp;too limited at&nbsp;the moment. However, they have a&nbsp;strong potential of&nbsp;unfolding into a&nbsp;well-functioning structure if&nbsp;aligned with a&nbsp;transformation into non-commodity-based and degrowth modes of&nbsp;livelihood.<\/p>\n<p>In&nbsp;urban settings, commoning can happen both in&nbsp;the <strong>physical realm<\/strong> (buildings, public spaces) or&nbsp;as&nbsp;commoning of&nbsp;<strong>social behaviours<\/strong> (care work, eldercare, cooperatives). As&nbsp;examples of&nbsp;urban commoning are not that abundant or&nbsp;straightforward in&nbsp;the context of&nbsp;the&nbsp;EP countries, it&rsquo;s necessary to&nbsp;include a&nbsp;broader spectrum of&nbsp;practices that could be&nbsp;defined as&nbsp;laboratories for exploring the potentials of&nbsp;commoning in&nbsp;cities. In&nbsp;that regard, mapping out community and placemaking projects which take on&nbsp;uncommon, novel forms of&nbsp;eco- and community-led housing, attempts to&nbsp;revive local places, neighborhoods, and high streets, as&nbsp;well as&nbsp;to&nbsp;reclaim land can provide insights for laying the grounds for commons research in&nbsp;the region (Chatterton, 2019).<\/p>\n<p>The residents&rsquo; ability to&nbsp;deploy their capacities and skills in&nbsp;order to&nbsp;build a&nbsp;common city could be&nbsp;estimated through rigorous research of&nbsp;practices of&nbsp;claiming the right to&nbsp;the city and forms of&nbsp;collective action that exist at&nbsp;the moment.<\/p>\n<p>If&nbsp;we&nbsp;look into some more concrete examples, <strong>urban gardens<\/strong> appear to&nbsp;be&nbsp;the most frequent form of&nbsp;commoning attempts in&nbsp;the&nbsp;EP countries. The link between gardening and degrowth has been established by&nbsp;Isabelle Anguelovski in&nbsp;the framework of&nbsp;the concept of&nbsp;the metabolic rift, proposed by&nbsp;Marx. Urban gardening can play a&nbsp;significant role in&nbsp;addressing the following:<\/p>\n<p>1) <strong>Ecological rift<\/strong>, &laquo;the rift in&nbsp;biophysical metabolic relationships&raquo;: Gardens can rescale nutrient cycles, decrease dependence on&nbsp;fuel-based food production, and prompt recycling of&nbsp;organic waste.<\/p>\n<p>2) <strong>Social rift: <\/strong>Although this is&nbsp;best exemplified by&nbsp;the dispossession of&nbsp;rural lands by&nbsp;their populations, in&nbsp;the urban context it&nbsp;also relates to&nbsp;the commodification of&nbsp;land, labor, and food. The use of&nbsp;empty or&nbsp;underused lots could limit industrial production and packaged food consumption in&nbsp;poor neighborhoods and beyond and ensure self-sufficient or&nbsp;small-scale production.<\/p>\n<p>3) Finally, the <strong>individual rift<\/strong> embodies the &laquo;alienation of&nbsp;humans from nature and the products of&nbsp;their labor.&raquo; Urban gardening practices could serve as&nbsp;a&nbsp;platform for reconnecting people with nature and the process of&nbsp;food production and consumption (Anguelovski, 2015).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Urban gardening projects<\/strong> in&nbsp;the broader post-Soviet region are both rooted in&nbsp;the past and practiced in&nbsp;new forms today. From the perspective of&nbsp;path dependence, the study of&nbsp;allotment cooperatives around dachas in&nbsp;Narva, Estonia, is&nbsp;an&nbsp;interesting example (Pikner et&nbsp;al., 2020). The authors point out the post-Soviet path dependences expressed in&nbsp;the commoning and cooperative form of&nbsp;organization around dacha allotments. Informal organizations in&nbsp;urban gardening areas after the collapse of&nbsp;the Soviet Union and the privatization of&nbsp;dachas developed in&nbsp;an&nbsp;attempt to&nbsp;solve infrastructure problems. As&nbsp;the privatization happened quite haphazardly, some of&nbsp;the new landlords claimed land which took ditches and other essential infrastructure out of&nbsp;collective use. As&nbsp;a&nbsp;result, the residents in&nbsp;Narva reorganized into collectives and reasserted the past practice of&nbsp;the common use of&nbsp;allotment lands.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, there are several attempts to&nbsp;establish urban gardens across the&nbsp;EP countries. The attempts reviewed within this research date back <a href=\"https:\/\/samosad.kyiv.ua\/?fbclid=IwAR23E8_KIq6r6ZSeT-3i8ZY-E3AniDEvoP9uwDvJQZ7b3X0eI7HQyrSSeDM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">to&nbsp;2015&nbsp;at the earliest<\/a>. The practices that we&nbsp;have been able to&nbsp;map are the <a href=\"https:\/\/misto-sad.com.ua\/heavenly-hundreds-garden\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Heavenly Hundred Park<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/samosad.kyiv.ua\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SAMOSAD<\/a> in&nbsp;Kyiv, as&nbsp;well as&nbsp;the Salaam Cinema Garden in&nbsp;Baku. The uniting feature of&nbsp;all three gardens is&nbsp;that they are a&nbsp;result of&nbsp;resistance by&nbsp;grassroots initiatives to&nbsp;construction in&nbsp;the city. While the gardening initiatives in&nbsp;Kyiv have already been running for several years and seem to&nbsp;have a&nbsp;strong community formed around them, the one in&nbsp;Baku is&nbsp;very new and is&nbsp;yet to&nbsp;grow into a&nbsp;regular practice, engaging a&nbsp;wider community.<\/p>\n<p>The participants of&nbsp;our Degrowth and Commons in&nbsp;EP&nbsp;Countries survey mentioned several other practices that come to&nbsp;their minds when talking about commons. Most of&nbsp;those are grassroots initiatives, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ReSewKyiv\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">cooperatives<\/a> that work with various societal issues but do&nbsp;practice commoning per&nbsp;se. For example, the cafe\/creative space <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/artgardenganca\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Art Garden in&nbsp;Ganja<\/a> was mentioned several times as&nbsp;a&nbsp;commons; however, it&nbsp;is&nbsp;mostly a&nbsp;space run by&nbsp;several young people in&nbsp;the city that functions as&nbsp;a&nbsp;socially-oriented cafe and an&nbsp;arts, crafts, and workshop space. Space functions on&nbsp;the basis of&nbsp;private property relations and provides commercial for-profit services. Although it&nbsp;does serve on&nbsp;many occasions as&nbsp;a&nbsp;place of&nbsp;gathering and a&nbsp;platform for creating solidarities in&nbsp;the community, it&rsquo;s not a&nbsp;commonly owned resource-producing goods for public benefit.<\/p>\n<p>Despite having strong roots in&nbsp;the past and in&nbsp;behavioral patterns within social networks of&nbsp;people, practices of&nbsp;commoning are very scarce in&nbsp;the&nbsp;EP countries. For example, half of&nbsp;the Degrowth and Commons in&nbsp;EP&nbsp;Countries survey participants from Azerbaijan didn&rsquo;t know of&nbsp;any specific examples of&nbsp;commons, even if&nbsp;they mentioned that there were probably some commons in&nbsp;their cities.<\/p>\n<p>Due to&nbsp;time constraints, our research didn&rsquo;t involve any field trips, interviews, or&nbsp;observational studies, and it&nbsp;is&nbsp;possible that we&nbsp;are missing some cases across the&nbsp;EP countries. We&nbsp;are very much invested in&nbsp;continuing this research and building up&nbsp;a&nbsp;list of&nbsp;case studies in&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/spreadsheets\/d\/1YkkN7QtnlgIHR7a8R1OnR3zK5GiN1l0I2uU47D0xW8k\/edit?usp=sharing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">this Google Sheet<\/a>; please feel free to&nbsp;add information here, and we&nbsp;will be&nbsp;happy to&nbsp;take it&nbsp;forward.<\/p>\n<h2>What would the preconditions for a&nbsp;transition to&nbsp;degrowth be&nbsp;in&nbsp;the context of&nbsp;the&nbsp;EP countries?<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Transition to&nbsp;degrowth is&nbsp;a&nbsp;non-linear process in&nbsp;the context of&nbsp;the urban setting in&nbsp;the&nbsp;EP countries.<\/strong> Vandeventer et&nbsp;al. (2019) suggest that the transition should go&nbsp;through the pluriversal (plural engagement of&nbsp;actors) pathway. This pathway highlights rules (&laquo;formal control of&nbsp;many rule-making functions gradually devolves to&nbsp;sub-national groups of&nbsp;shared geography&raquo;), actors and institutions (&laquo;diverse localized groups form based on&nbsp;social solidarity; these groups coordinate internally in&nbsp;ways relevant to&nbsp;particular places and externally through nested power structures of&nbsp;coordinating councils; diminished nation-level institutional power decreases international confrontations&raquo;) as&nbsp;game-changer factors in&nbsp;this transition.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The role of&nbsp;habitus and commoning is&nbsp;incorporated into the Bourdieusian perspective (Koch, 2020) on&nbsp;the preconditions for a&nbsp;degrowth transition. <\/strong>The habitus which we&nbsp;live is&nbsp;neither a&nbsp;result of&nbsp;free will nor determined by&nbsp;structures, but created by&nbsp;a&nbsp;kind of&nbsp;interplay between the two over time: dispositions which are both shaped by&nbsp;past events and structures and shape current practices and structures, and which also, importantly, condition our very perceptions of&nbsp;these (Bourdieu 1984).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Habitus is&nbsp;created through a&nbsp;social rather than individual process, leading to&nbsp;patterns that are enduring and transferable from one context to&nbsp;another, but that also shift in&nbsp;relation to&nbsp;specific contexts and over time. <\/strong>The Bourdieusian perspective puts a&nbsp;lot of&nbsp;weight on&nbsp;the role of&nbsp;perception of&nbsp;social\/common structures and the possibility of&nbsp;a&nbsp;shift, over time, towards the context of&nbsp;a&nbsp;degrowth transition.<\/p>\n<p>The consensus in&nbsp;the Global North-tailored literature is&nbsp;that <strong>transition to&nbsp;degrowth can be&nbsp;possible by&nbsp;reforming the scarcity-based design process and through resource management.<\/strong> For this, a&nbsp;commons-based approach should combine open knowledge, legal changes in&nbsp;governance and ownership, and local on-demand production and consumption.<\/p>\n<p>Based on&nbsp;the academic, activist, and policy debates, fundamental action for social transition and advocacy for commons as&nbsp;a&nbsp;social form have the potential to&nbsp;replace the commodity form of&nbsp;production as&nbsp;a&nbsp;societal foundation, facilitating the transition to&nbsp;degrowth in&nbsp;the&nbsp;EP countries. For that, the following preconditions would be&nbsp;relevant.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Open coordination and cooperativism through polycentric connectivity and stigmergic mediation.<\/strong> Mutual coordination and ownership of&nbsp;commons require a&nbsp;reciprocal mechanism. Open cooperativism explores the symbiosis between transparent and open management and common resources to&nbsp;create resilient economic entities. Deliberative citizen forums can assist in&nbsp;co-developing and upscaling commoning initiatives as&nbsp;well as&nbsp;broaden the social basis. Euler (2018) suggests that the establishment of&nbsp;scalable and comprehensive commons structures can be&nbsp;promoted by&nbsp;polycentric connectivity and stigmergic mediation. Polycentricity, defined in&nbsp;terms of&nbsp;Ostrom et&nbsp;al. (1961), &laquo;connotes many centres of&nbsp;decision making that are formally independent of&nbsp;each other.&raquo; Stigmergy is&nbsp;a&nbsp;process of&nbsp;letting the network of&nbsp;people know what needs to&nbsp;be&nbsp;done, sometimes categorizing it&nbsp;by&nbsp;urgency, recency, and importance. The most popular example of&nbsp;this is&nbsp;the highlight on&nbsp;Wikipedia that says, &laquo;If&nbsp;you know something about the requested topic, please write an&nbsp;article.&raquo; The goal of&nbsp;this method is&nbsp;a&nbsp;coherent organization of&nbsp;local action without the need for personnel, time, and spatial meetings. Stigmergic mediation also exists across other commons projects, such as&nbsp;housing or&nbsp;gardening.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Advocating local regulatory and institutional basis for the decentralized governance of&nbsp;commons.<\/strong> A&nbsp;regulatory perspective demonstrates how deeply rooted the growth principle has become, <strong>not only in&nbsp;the economic system but also in&nbsp;the legal framework<\/strong>. Therefore, the transition to&nbsp;degrowth requires commons-centric governance allowing for the creative autonomy of&nbsp;the contributing citizens. Taking into account the strong presence of&nbsp;the state in&nbsp;the&nbsp;EP countries, a&nbsp;so-called &laquo;partner state&raquo; would enable commoning through creating and sustaining infrastructures for the production of&nbsp;commons-based ecosystems. The Bologna Regulation for the Care and Regeneration of&nbsp;the Urban Commons could be&nbsp;an&nbsp;example. This regulation provides engaged citizens with legal mechanisms to&nbsp;claim urban resources as&nbsp;commons and to&nbsp;declare interest in&nbsp;their care and management.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Building awareness and capacity of&nbsp;grassroots initiatives for locally crafted degrowth solutions. <\/strong>Grassroots initiatives have limited power and resources, but they are capable of&nbsp;mobilizing and engaging the wider public around specific issues. <strong>The role of&nbsp;grassroots initiatives is&nbsp;crucial for bottom-up degrowth practices.<\/strong> The potential for grassroots initiatives to&nbsp;build commons and locally crafted solutions according to&nbsp;the structures specific to&nbsp;the place requires access to&nbsp;information and good practices in&nbsp;local languages, bridging academic research with grassroots practices and peer-to-peer learning throughout the region. A&nbsp;good example of&nbsp;that would be&nbsp;the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tni.org\/files\/download\/beyonddevelopment_complete.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">degrowth movement<\/a> in&nbsp;Latin American countries, where the knowledge of&nbsp;researchers is&nbsp;intertwined with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sustainable-business\/blog\/buen-vivir-philosophy-south-america-eduardo-gudynas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">activism<\/a>, where they share best practices, case studies, and theoretical debates.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Building up&nbsp;and strengthening new forms of&nbsp;work:<\/strong> Nowtopias are a&nbsp;practice of&nbsp;work culture centered on&nbsp;goals other than monetary rewards. The term in&nbsp;itself attempts to&nbsp;define the efforts of&nbsp;reinventing work by&nbsp;investing full capacities to&nbsp;create, share, address issues, cooperate without monetary interests. <strong>The establishment and subsistence of&nbsp;commons heavily depends on&nbsp;these kinds of&nbsp;practices, as&nbsp;people invest their resources and time into the production of&nbsp;the common good without any strict frameworks that define the output of&nbsp;inputted labor for each individual. <\/strong>Carlsson and Manning (2010) look at&nbsp;the alternative work practices in&nbsp;the example of&nbsp;bike kitchens and vacant lot gardening. The authors conclude that these practices prove that people are capable of&nbsp;recreating patterns of&nbsp;behaviour based on&nbsp;mutual aid, collaboration, and collective need. While in&nbsp;the capitalist mode of&nbsp;production, it&rsquo;s only a&nbsp;certain group of&nbsp;the &laquo;privileged&raquo; class that can afford to&nbsp;work without receiving a&nbsp;cash flow in&nbsp;return, these practices can serve as&nbsp;an&nbsp;experimentation lab for what labor will entail in&nbsp;a&nbsp;degrowth world.<\/p>\n<h2>Further research agenda<\/h2>\n<p>Degrowth and commons have been discussed widely in&nbsp;this analytical note, but many important subjects remain open for further research. <strong>First and foremost, the understanding of&nbsp;commons in&nbsp;the context of&nbsp;the&nbsp;EP countries should be&nbsp;articulated:<\/strong> what the commoning practices are, in&nbsp;which physical and behavioural domains they form and evolve, what the historical traditions of&nbsp;commoning and learning experiences of&nbsp;the marginalized rural commons are.<\/p>\n<p><strong>An in-depth exploration of&nbsp;how grassroots initiatives perceive the degrowth concept and commitment to&nbsp;commons in&nbsp;all six&nbsp;EP countries.<\/strong> Further research could compare, for example, the spatial differences (urban\/semi-urban, rural) and the potential of&nbsp;digital commons besides physical ones. Research could explore the ways of&nbsp;building awareness and mechanisms for the initiatives and how common\/collective leadership might support effective public involvement in&nbsp;growth debates based on&nbsp;case studies across these countries.<\/p>\n<p><strong>More methodological work is&nbsp;needed on&nbsp;how to&nbsp;capture the impact and outcomes of&nbsp;commoning in&nbsp;these countries.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>A&nbsp;question that has emerged from the limited data that we&nbsp;have collected through the Degrowth and Commons in&nbsp;EP&nbsp;Countries survey: <\/strong>what should the legal tools be&nbsp;to&nbsp;allow the further evolution of&nbsp;commons in&nbsp;urban contexts?<\/p>\n<p><strong>And finally, what are the behavioral commoning practices<\/strong> (e.g. care work, eldercare, cooperatives), and do&nbsp;they have the potential to&nbsp;be&nbsp;scaled up&nbsp;or&nbsp;projected into the physical practices of&nbsp;commoning?<\/p>\n<h2>Conclusions<\/h2>\n<p><strong>The EP&nbsp;countries face a&nbsp;double challenge: to&nbsp;overcome developmental barriers to&nbsp;a&nbsp;more sustainable future and to&nbsp;challenge the concept of&nbsp;growth and find their own path to&nbsp;development.<\/strong> This article has examined commons in&nbsp;the&nbsp;EP countries through the lens of&nbsp;degrowth. It&nbsp;can be&nbsp;argued that the&nbsp;EP countries have a&nbsp;significant potential to&nbsp;substantially reconsider development strategies by&nbsp;meeting sustainability challenges and challenging the role of&nbsp;growth in&nbsp;this model, even though the experience and knowledge of&nbsp;local grassroots initiatives in&nbsp;fostering the commons organization and management process are limited.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, in&nbsp;the&nbsp;EP countries and the broader Global South, like in&nbsp;the Global North, the economy and the environment are intertwined. Equally, all economic models should view socio-ecological welfare as&nbsp;a&nbsp;core part of&nbsp;development. Building awareness in&nbsp;grassroots initiatives and research circles of&nbsp;these countries might be&nbsp;the path towards enriching the degrowth agenda in&nbsp;an&nbsp;attempt to&nbsp;avoid unsustainable developments.<\/p>\n<p>Physical commons in&nbsp;cities of&nbsp;the&nbsp;EP countries could be&nbsp;a&nbsp;starting point for that by&nbsp;building a&nbsp;consultation process between institutions and grassroots, as&nbsp;they exist in&nbsp;some of&nbsp;the&nbsp;EP countries and are accessible to&nbsp;the public while there is&nbsp;a&nbsp;need for establishing the organizational and steering capacity of&nbsp;commoning.<\/p>\n<h2>References<\/h2>\n<p>Acosta, A. (2013) &laquo;Extractivism and Neoextractivism: Two Sides of&nbsp;the Same Curse.&raquo; In: Beyond Development: Alternative visions from Latin America, M.&nbsp;Lang and D.&nbsp;Mokrani (eds.), 61-86. Amsterdam: Rosa Luxemburg Foundation.<\/p>\n<p>Anguelovski, I. (2015) &laquo;Urban Gardening.&raquo; In: D&rsquo;Alisa, G., Demaria, F., &amp;&nbsp;Kallis, G. (eds.) (2014) <em>Degrowth: a&nbsp;vocabulary for a&nbsp;new era<\/em>. Routledge.<\/p>\n<p>Carlsson, C., &amp;&nbsp;Manning, F. (2010) &laquo;Nowtopia: strategic exodus?&raquo; <em>Antipode<\/em>, 42(4), 924-953.<\/p>\n<p>Chatterton, P. (2019) Unlocking sustainable cities: A&nbsp;manifesto for real change. London: Pluto Press.<\/p>\n<p>Chertkovskaya, E. (2019) &laquo;Degrowth in&nbsp;theory, pursuit of&nbsp;growth in&nbsp;action: Exploring the Russian and Soviet contexts.&raquo; In: <em>Towards a&nbsp;political economy of&nbsp;degrowth<\/em>. London: Rowman &amp;&nbsp;Littlefield.<\/p>\n<p>Cosme, I, In&ecirc;s Cosme, Rui Santos, Daniel W. O&rsquo;Neill (2017) &laquo;Assessing the degrowth discourse: A&nbsp;review and analysis of&nbsp;academic degrowth policy proposals.&raquo; <em>Journal of&nbsp;Cleaner Production<\/em>, Volume 149, 321-334. ISSN 0959-6526. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.jclepro.2017.02.016.<\/p>\n<p>Euler, J. (2019) &laquo;The commons: a&nbsp;social form that allows for degrowth and sustainability.&raquo; Capitalism Nature Socialism, 30(2), 158-175.<\/p>\n<p>Helfrich, S., &amp;&nbsp;Bollier, D. (2012) &laquo;Commons als transformative Kraft.&raquo; Commons. F&uuml;r eine neue Politik jenseits von Markt und Staat, 15-23.<\/p>\n<p>Hickel, J. (2020) &laquo;What does degrowth mean? A&nbsp;few points of&nbsp;clarification.&raquo; <em>Globalizations<\/em>. DOI: 10.1080\/14747731.2020.1812222.<\/p>\n<p>Martinez\u2010Fernandez, C., Audirac, I., Fol, S., &amp;&nbsp;Cunningham\u2010Sabot, E. (2012) &laquo;Shrinking cities: Urban challenges of&nbsp;globalization.&raquo; <em>International Journal of&nbsp;Urban and Regional Research<\/em>, 36(2), 213-225.<\/p>\n<p>Muraca, M. (2012) &laquo;Towards a&nbsp;fair degrowth-society: justice and the right to&nbsp;a &lsquo;good life&rsquo; beyond growth.&raquo; <em>Futures<\/em>, 44, 535-545. 10.1016\/j.futures.2012.03.014.<\/p>\n<p>Ostrom, V., Tiebout, C.&nbsp;M., &amp;&nbsp;Warren, R. (1961) &laquo;The organization of&nbsp;government in&nbsp;metropolitan areas: a&nbsp;theoretical inquiry.&raquo; The American Political Science Review, 55(4), 831-842.<\/p>\n<p>Pikner, T., Willman, K., &amp;&nbsp;Jokinen, A. (2020) &laquo;Urban Commoning as&nbsp;a&nbsp;Vehicle Between Government Institutions and Informality: Collective Gardening Practices in&nbsp;Tampere and Narva.&raquo; <em>International Journal of&nbsp;Urban and Regional Research<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Rodr&iacute;guez-Labajos, B., Y&aacute;nez, I., Bond, P., Greyl, L, Munguti, S, Uyi Ojo, G., Winfridus, O. (2019) &laquo;Not So&nbsp;Natural an&nbsp;Alliance? Degrowth and Environmental Justice Movements in&nbsp;the Global South.&raquo; <em>Ecological Economics<\/em>, Volume 157, 175-184.<\/p>\n<p>Rieniets, T. (2009) &laquo;Shrinking cities: Causes and effects of&nbsp;urban population losses in&nbsp;the twentieth century.&raquo; <em>Nature and Culture<\/em>, 4(3), 231&ndash;254. doi:10.3167\/nc.2009.040302.<\/p>\n<p>Silverman, R.&nbsp;M. (2020) &laquo;Rethinking shrinking cities: Peripheral dual cities have arrived.&raquo; <em>Journal of&nbsp;Urban Affairs<\/em>, 42(3), 294-311.<\/p>\n<p>Koch, M. (2020) &laquo;Structure, action and change: a&nbsp;Bourdieusian perspective on&nbsp;the preconditions for a&nbsp;degrowth transition.&raquo; <em>Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy<\/em>, 16:1, 4-14. DOI: 10.1080\/15487733.2020.1754693.<\/p>\n<p>Vandeventer, J.S., Cattaneo, C., Zografos, C. (2019) &laquo;A&nbsp;Degrowth Transition: Pathways for the Degrowth Niche to&nbsp;Replace the Capitalist-Growth Regime.&raquo; <em>Ecological Economics<\/em>, Volume 156. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.ecolecon.2018.10.00.<\/p>\n<p>W&auml;chter, P. (2013) &laquo;The impacts of&nbsp;spatial planning on&nbsp;degrowth.&raquo; <em>Sustainability<\/em>, 5(3), 1067-1079.<\/p>\n<p>Weiss&nbsp;M., Cattaneo, C. (2017) &laquo;Degrowth&nbsp;&mdash; taking stock and reviewing an&nbsp;emerging academic paradigm.&raquo; <em>Ecological Economics<\/em>, Volume 137, 220-230. 10.1016\/j.ecolecon.2017.01.014.<\/p>\n<p><em>The paper&nbsp;is part of&nbsp;the &laquo;Eastern European Cities: Degrowth vs&nbsp;Right to&nbsp;Develop&raquo; project, supported by&nbsp;FES Regional Office &laquo;Dialogue Eastern Europe&raquo;.&nbsp;The views expressed in the paper&nbsp;belong to the authors and do not necessarily coincide with those of the Cedos think tank or Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Any use of the materials from this publication is allowed provided the mention of the primary source is made no further than the second paragraph of the text.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The relevance of the degrowth approach for Eastern Partnership countries, the role of commons for degrowth within cities, and what would the preconditions for a\u00a0transition to\u00a0degrowth be\u00a0in\u00a0the context of\u00a0the\u00a0EP countries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":4697,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","topic":[18,32],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cedos.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/researches\/4136"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cedos.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/researches"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cedos.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/researches"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cedos.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cedos.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cedos.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=4136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}