Charging the Commons Roundtable Series: Designing for resource-sharing communities 

Charging the Commons Roundtable Series: Designing for resource-sharing communities 

A 3-part roundtable series where we explore resource communities from different perspectives

More and more people are seeking grassroots ways to form communities based on shared values. Such communities are also dubbed ‘commons’, and are seen as alternative approaches to collectively manage resources in addition to market and state provisions. Agreements about living together quickly touch on agreements about sharing resources such as housing, energy, or cars. But how do you share those resources in a fair way that does justice to the communities’ values?

Commons-communities are often established during a slow-moving, laborious, and uncertain process between its members. This process contains many issues and raises many questions that communities need to address. During this 3 part series at Pakhuis de Zwijger, we will explore resource communities from different perspectives:

  • How to turn ideas into actually setting up a commons (be)commoning and which steps and actions should be taken in this very early stage?
  • How does a commons make decisions together? What are the benefits (and drawbacks) of different decentralised methods of decision-making?
  • In what ways can technologies support and empower communities to effectively govern their organization?

Roundtable #1 | From (Be)Commoning to Commoning: Can the commons be designed?

Speakers:
– Zsuzsanna Tomor, PhD, researcher at AUAS – Civic Interaction Design Research Group
– Darinka Czischke, PhD, Associate Professor, Housing and Social Sustainability | Delft University of Technology
– Joachim Meerkerk, PhD Candidate Urban Management at Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences
– Lukas Held, Project coordinator CollectieveKracht | Erasmus University

Roundtable #2 | Design for collective decision-making

Speakers:

– Tara Karpinski, Researcher at Caradt, Avans Homeschool
– Marthijn Pool, Co-founder at Space&Matter
– Rosamel Abeka, Community Builder at CLT H-Buurt
– Stefan Hennis, Procescoördinator en interim bestuur at Wooncoöperatie De Warren

Roundtable #3 | Platform voor de commons

Speakers:

– Zsuzsanna Tomor, PhD Tomor, AUAS – Civic Interaction Design Research Group
– Annaricht Hannema, Kartrekker
– Arne van Huis, Directeur MAD Impact
– Geert Jan (GJ) Heijstek, Onze Auto Haarlem, autodelen in de buurt
– Mark Simoons, Creatief Merkstrateeg DIKS autoverhuur B.V., faciliteert Elektrisch Deelrijden De Pijp
– Jaap Lampe, OnzeAuto, coöperatie elektrische deelauto’s Haarlem

This series is part of the project Charging the Commons, a 2-year research project developed by AUAS – Lectorate Civic Interaction Design, in collaboration with Avans Centre of Applied Research for Art, Design and Technology (Caradt). Charging the Commons explores how a Situated-design approach can be employed to articulate the (social) values of resource communities. The project also examines how these values can be translated into a designs for the management of an urban commons, using digital technologies. To learn more about Charging the Commons and its research outputs, visit chargingthecommons.nl

Project Partners: Space & Matter, Crowd-Building, Metabolic, Dark Matter Labs, De Warren, Stipo, Digital Design Agencies, Dutch Blockchain Coalition, Commons Network, Pakhuis de Zwijger, ThingsCon, Waag, Het Nieuwe Instituut, PBL.