After the “Summer of Migration“: Practices of Citizenship as Urban Commons

When: Friday, November 4,  6-8 pm
Where: Stresemannstraße 95, 10963 Berlin, Deutschland

**Please note that a password is needed at this event space - please register by sending a mail to gsz.urbancommons@gmail.com**

In the context of the “Berlin Urban Commons Research Series” the Urban Research Group at the Georg-Simmel-Centre (Humboldt University Berlin) is pleased to invite to an event on “Citizenship as Urban Commons”.

After the “Summer of Migration” the question of how to promote an open society gained relevance for many activists. In conjunction with refugees, several initiatives and organizations developed practices of citizenship, from shared cooking events, the organization of private accommodation, health care to protest camps. With the passing of restrictive asylum legislation in recent months, it is to be assumed that many persons with uncertain “residency perspective” (Bleibeperspektive) will remain in a status of deficient rights for years (such as an “exceptional leave to remain” (Duldung)) or will go into hiding when threatened by deportation.

Resistance emerges against such state-enforced exclusion. It is not about doing good to “the other” – the refugees – but to create new forms of sociality and appropriate collective means of reproduction irrespective of residency status. In this event, we wish to address such practices of citizenship that go beyond the law or even contradict it – and we refer to such practices as commons. We want to investigate on what conditions such commons can be sustained or even be expanded. What kind of political challenges or opportunities can we identify today? What is the role of “the city” as a space for developing such alternatives? What role can/should/must the state play with respect to such practices?

Panelists include: Jochen Becker (metroZones), Bettina Bauerfeind, Campus Cosmopolis Berlin, N.N. refugee academy (solicited)

Please note that the event’s main language will be English.

The event is hosted by the Modellprojekt “ZUsammenKUNFT”, Stresemannstraße 95.

Organized and moderated by Martin Schwegmann (MitOst, Berlin) and Markus Kip (URBANgrad, TU Darmstadt) - both Urban Research Group : Urban Commons.