The Urban Commons Research Collective (UCRC) is an interdisciplinary platform convening scholars, practitioners, and activists to engage with the theory and practice of the urban commons.
We work through research, publishing, and collective inquiry to explore commons as situated responses to contemporary urban challenges. Rather than approaching the commons as a fixed concept, we understand them as open organisational systems for collective management, grounded in participatory and radical democratic forms of governance.
We aim to contribute to and shape emerging debates on the commons, supporting forms of urban life that move beyond extractive systems and are instead grounded in plurality, mutual support, and shared responsibility.
Our approach is collaborative and process-led. Guided by principles of care and equity, we cultivate diverse forms of knowledge, build connections across contexts, and support co-learning and critical exchange.
UCRC operates as an open framework for thinking, researching, and producing knowledge together.
Our latest project, the Plural Commons Archive, is an evolving, collective resource gathering cases and reflections on urban commons across multiple languages and contexts.
The Urban Commons Handbook is a published volume bringing together definitions, experiences, and situated knowledge on commoning the city.
UCRC members produce research individually and collaboratively, extending questions and methods emerging from our shared inquiry. A recent example is available here.
We organise and take part in workshops, seminars, and conferences as spaces for exchange, experimentation, and collective learning.
and, until 2024, also Alex Axinte and Thomas Moore.