Published on Tuesday, March 14, 2023
Abstract
In this seminar, Dr Iolanda Bianchi will present her recent work on the democratisation of local public services by way of the paradigm of the common. The presentation will focus on two urban contexts, Naples and Barcelona, and examines the common-inspired transformation of their local public services, respectively, water services (Acqua Bene Comune A.S.) and sociocultural facilities (Citizens Asset Programme). The seminar will reflect on the capacity of public-common institutions to represent an alternative and more democratic management modality for local public services.
Announcement
Programme
2023, March 16th
4 pm-5.30 pm
Salle AS1-08, EHESS 54 Bd Raspail 75006 Paris
Francesco Campagnari, Marie Sklodowska-Curie research fellow (EF-ST) at the Centre d'étude des mouvements sociaux (Ehess-Cnrs-Inserm), organizes a seminar: "Public-common institutions: a radical democratisation of local public services"
- Speaker : Iolanda Bianchi, FWO postdoctoral fellow (Urban Studies Institute, Université d'Anvers)
- Discussant : Francesca Artioli, Maîtresse de conférences (Lab'Urba, Ecole d’Urbanisme de Paris, Université Paris-Est Créteil)
The seminar will be in English.
Summary
Over the last decades, and especially with the spread of the Covid -19 pandemic, the most common modalities of local public service management - direct public management and outsourcing - have been widely criticised for their limited democratic nature. Within this context, “the common” has emerged as a paradigm that can inspire the construction of a radical democratic management modality by way of application of the principle of non-appropriability (Laval and Dardot, 2015).
Building a common-inspired governance of local public services means citizens self-producing and self-distributing them with ample financial and/or infrastructural support from the local state, such as when public housing is delivered through cooperative housing projects. Elsewhere, innovative forms of co-ownership between public and civic partners demonstrate the potential for hybridity in the provision of services, such as when energy infrastructure is co-owned by citizen cooperatives and municipalities. When these are not possible, common-inspired approaches involve letting the local state produce and distribute public services in-house, but through shared decision-making with civil society, as in public utility companies with participatory governing structures.
In this seminar, Dr Iolanda Bianchi will present her recent work on the democratisation of local public services by way of the paradigm of the common (Bianchi, 2022). The presentation will focus on two urban contexts, Naples and Barcelona, and examines the common-inspired transformation of their local public services, respectively, water services (Acqua Bene Comune A.S.) and sociocultural facilities (Citizens Asset Programme). The seminar will reflect on the capacity of public-common institutions to represent an alternative and more democratic management modality for local public services.
Upcoming session
2023, June 12th
How Civic Action Works: A book presentation and discussion
3 pm - 5 pm
Salle AS1_24, EHESS 54 Bd Raspail 75006 Paris
Speaker:
- Paul Lichterman, Professor of Sociology and Religion, University of Southern California
Discussants:
- Carole Gayet-Viaud, chargée de recherche CNRS au CESDIP, chercheure associée au CEMS
- Elena Ostanel, chercheure à l’Università Iuav di Venezia
Ce séminaire a été financé par le programme de recherche et d'innovation Horizon 2020 de l'Union européenne dans le cadre de la convention de subvention Marie Sklodowska-Curie n°101024066.
Following housing activism in Los Angeles can be inconvenient for social movement researchers. We discover a variety of actors and styles of action, some of which challenge usual understandings of who social movement actors are and what they do. How Civic Action Works embraces the inconvenience for the benefit of researchers and activists alike. Combining insights of John Dewey and Erving Goffman, the book presents a conceptual framework that zooms out to a breadth of collective problem-solving efforts while zooming in to show how these unfold in interaction. By seeing some of these civic efforts cross the lines typically drawn between state, civic and commercial “sectors,” we can specify what civic action is and how it becomes hybrid. Ethnographic research follows four housing campaigns and three coalitions closely, revealing different styles of civic action each with distinct dilemmas and trade-offs. These patterns of action powerfully shape activists’ claims, organizing strategies and understandings of success. The book’s pragmatist inspired approach solves the puzzles of why activist coalitions fragment even when the actors agree on many things, and why activists often have not considered homelessness a housing problem. A focus on civic action produces practical findings for dialogue with activists, quite different from the retrospective, “best practices” stories that circulate in the world of social advocacy.
Subjects
- Urban studies (Main category)
- Zones and regions > Europe
- Society > Political studies > Political and social movements
- Society > Sociology > Urban sociology
- Zones and regions > Europe > Italy
- Society > Political studies > Governance and public policies
- Society > Geography > Applied geography and planning
- Zones and regions > Europe > Iberian Peninsula
Places
- Salle AS1-08 - EHESS, 54, Bd Raspail
Paris, France (75006)
Event attendance modalities
Hybrid event (on site and online)
Date(s)
- Thursday, March 16, 2023
- Monday, June 12, 2023
Keywords
- commons, commons-state institutions, Naples, Barcelona, public service
Reference Urls
Information source
- Zouhour Ben Salah
courriel : bensalah [at] ehess [dot] fr
License
This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.
To cite this announcement
« Penser l’action civique en relation avec les politiques urbaines et la planification », Seminar, Calenda, Published on Tuesday, March 14, 2023, https://doi.org/10.58079/1arl