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.

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.

Online stream

Registration

Upcoming session

2023, June 12th

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