Barcelona

Iolanda Bianchi (PhD in Political Science and PhD in Urban Planning) is an urban and political sociologist. She works in the field of urban governance, policy, and collective action. Her research focuses on the interplay between public and collective action at the urban scale and examines how this interplay can generate governance, policy, and social change to achieve more just, equitable and democratic cities. She currently holds a Ramón y Cajal Research Fellowship at the University of Barcelona. Previously, she was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow at the University of Antwerp and a Juan de la Cierva fellow at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

• Acknowledgements1 Introduction: Situating Urban Commons-Local State Assemblages 1.1 Introduction 1.2 An emerging political practice in European cities: the politics of the urban commons1.3 Urban commons-local state interactions: a siloed and deterministic understanding 1.4 An epistemology for urban commons-local state interaction: urban commons-local state assemblages1.5 Rhizomatic and arborescent assemblages: enhancing the politics of the urban commons1.6 Researching urban commons-local state assemblages: Barcelona, case studies, and methods2 Beyond Neo-Marxist and Neo-Institutionalist Dichotomies: Commons-State Assemblages in the Urban Context 2.1 Introduction 2.2 The re-emergence of the commons: the neo-institutionalist and the neo-Marxist perspectives 2.3 The commons and the state: the neo-institutionalist and the neo-Marxist perspectives 2.4 Bridging the two perspectives: towards a more nuanced understanding of state-commons interactions2.5 The urban dimension of the commons: the ambivalent political possibilities of the urban context 2.6 Incorporating the urban dimension of the state: the political opportunities offered by the local state2.7 Conclusion 3 Urban Commons-Local State Assemblage Regimes in Barcelona 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Urban commons-local state assemblage regimes: from the early 20th century to the 2000s 3.3 Urban commons-local state assemblage regimes: the 2007–2008 financial crisis, urban movements and the rise of BComú 3.4 The urban commons-local state assemblage regime under BComú: urban welfare and commons-sympathetic policies 3.5 Conclusion 4 A Rhizomatic Urban Commons-Local State Assemblage: Can Batlló Sociocultural Centre and the Citizen Assets Programme 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Building a rhizomatic urban commons-local state assemblages: neighbourhood struggles, the neoliberalisation of urban development, and the financial crisis 4.3 Practicing a rhizomatic urban commons-local state assemblage: the Can Batlló sociocultural centre under the conservative government4.4 Consolidating a rhizomatic urban commons-local state assemblage: the Can Batlló project and the Citizen Assets programme under the BComú governments 4.5 Conclusion 5 An Arborescent Urban Commons-Local State Assemblages: The Puigcerdà Informal Settlement and the Alencop Waste-Picking Cooperative5.1 Introduction 5.2 Building a rhizomatic urban commons-local state assemblages: migration flows, the financial crisis, and the rise of the Puigcerdà informal settlement5.3 Dismantling a rhizomatic urban commons-local state assemblage: the eviction of the Puigcerdà informal settlement and the Informal Settlement plan under the conservative government5.4 Rebuilding an urban commons-local state assemblage in an arborescent form: the Alencop waste-picking cooperative under the conservative and BComú governments 5.5 Conclusion 6 Conclusion6.1 Strategies for enhancing the politics of the urban commons6.2 Exploiting the local state’s rationalities and policy interventions: developing a strategically recalibrated approach to urban politics and building networks with social movements 6.3 Navigating the tension between urban commons’ autonomy and local state support: building both self-governing and material autonomy6.4 Occupying the local state: leveraging New Municipalism to extend the politics of the urban commons beyond electoral cycles 6.5 Avenues for future research Index