What if the commons was applied to urban public land?

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I thought I’d note some observations gleaned whilst filming one of the Old Trafford Mapping Walks on 15th May 2013…

Participants feed on soup and bread before heading out in pairs to map the area. The Kindling Trust’s Kirstin and Chris share their ideas on what is possible and what we should all look out for in the spaces. Steven explains how to map and gives us the tools (paper / book, pen and camera).

Although much of the land is publically owned, there is a perception that it cannot be accessed. Everyday Growing Cultures aims to break down this perception. Walking through the streets and seeing people map potential growing spots has me thinking about Elinor Ostrom’s work on collective action and the commons. As Ostrom points out, success of regeneration projects lies in good communication, which can prevent a Hardin ‘tragedy of the commons’ where people over use the resource.

Later, whilst out filming some of the areas where participants have taken photos and created reports on what they have found, I notice there is a tragedy of the commons – not so much in that people are over using the common bit of land – but that they don’t use it at all – there appears to be a natural border that no one tends to and that no one dares cross, except to throw litter, which is then left because there is no shared responsibility of this spot.

I wonder if maybe a way forward is a ‘commons’ style status for urban public land, which a community organization can oversee. It needs to have a community organization or group overseeing it to ensure there is a shared responsibility in keeping it going. Without this commitment I imagine the motivation to keep it going would soon dwindle. Without this commons, it could create a challenge when the fruit or vegetables are grown in terms of whether or not people will harvest the fruit. This problem has been tackled in East Germany where harvesting apples in the public realm would amount to stealing… until Mundraub came along.

After the workshop there was a small area on the map that didn’t get mapped. Since we live in Old Trafford we went out one rainy day and mapped the unmapped area. It was great to experience this (without the heavy camera). This gave me a really good insight into what participants were going through and it makes you look at your local area differently – in terms of its potential for growing. Personally as an iphone user, I love apps and could see how the mapping activity could easily be helped along using an app.