Cultivating care in concrete environments:learning from urban commoning projects.

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Through in-depth ethnographic research with two place-based projects in London and Paris, my doctoral research provides a unique and innovative study of the affective dimensions of collective practicesthat can cultivate ethical socio-ecological relations. I show how developing the ability to collectively work with emotions and affects, integrating them into transformative social practices, can result in creating more capacities and energy within communities and organisations working towards creating more socially and environmentally resilient and just societies. I developed my doctoral research proposal in 2014-15, inspired by a wave of place-based collective action in European cities following the 2008 financial crisis. Witnessing and experiencing the uneven effects of intertwined economic, social, and environmental crises 'closer to home' led to people to organize around concerns that haduntil then been more the concern of global justice movements. Place-based projects emerged, inspired by notions of commons- as ways of organising againstthe exploitation of people and land -and emerging inter-disciplinary scholarship on commoning - as practices that do not separate caring for the environment and tackling social issues (Kirwan, Dawney, &Brigstocke, 2015; PlanC, 2017). In cities, groups already working on social policy-related issues such asexclusion, housing, urban rehabilitation, environmental justice, gender violence,or coloniality, have taken up commoning as a way of transforming ideas into actual practices. Nearly a decade later, the relevance of such practices is all the more evident: The Covid-19 pandemic and a growing cost of living crisis have only highlighted the importance of developing social policies that connect human and environmental health (Carlson et al., 2022), that address deepening spatial inequalities (British Academy, 2022), the loss of social fabric created by unjust urban rehabilitation programmes, as well as more equitable access to green spaces in cities (Law, 2023). My work draws on feminist scholarshipthat calls for "staying with the trouble"and forming "unexpected collaborations and combinations" (Haraway, 2016, p.4) to nourish ethical and sustainable ways of living on an unevenly shared planet. I focus on the difficult and awkward relations that commoning implies - relations that also include non-human bodies. My doctoral research identified how potentially violent or debilitating feelingsthat permeate contemporary cities, such as discomfort or urgency, can be transformed through collective practices. When experienced as common notions rather than solely individual emotions, such feelings can lead to practices of care that don't shy away from difficult relations. This matters in terms of developing the capabilities within communities and organisations to respond to present and future social and environmental emergencies and speaks to the relevance of my work for social policy.My approach also led me to develop the notion of 'concrete environments' andidentify their five key characteristics - urban wild, austerity, cracks, alchemy, and earthbound - as a way of exploring the link between commoning practices and broader socio-political contexts.This fellowship will allow me to put thisoriginal and distinctive conceptualisation to work as a framework for connectingactual practices that can be developed in communities and organisations with relatedsocial policy areas (environment, housing, social infrastructures, cultural rights, just socio-ecological transitions). I will do this bywriting a monograph on 'commoning in concrete environments', facilitatingtwoengagement workshops, producing a five-part podcast, and attending an international conference. These activities will allow me to consolidate my doctoral research, strengthen and extend my networks to ensure my work has meaningful impact, and create fruitful conditions for writinga funding proposal for further engaged research.