PREAMBLE Why Cultural Commoning Matters

Preamble

This introductory piece sets the scene for a series of articles by cultural thinkers and doers that follow. The articles are presented in two sets of eight. The first set, gathered under the title Perspectives, are variously ‘thought pieces’ about aspects of our cultural commons and cultural commoning. The second set, under the title Practices, are ‘case stories’ of cultural commoning happening in diverse ways and contexts. Although categorised in this way, both principle and practice are, of course, features of every article.

Why Cultural Commoning Matters

Kevin Murphy and Denis Stewart

Cultural commoning is of its time. In a world where it is becoming clear that the everyday creative things we do have value for us, for the social fabric and wellbeing of our communities and for the health of our democracies it offers an alternative approach to sustaining our creative lives. We live in an era when the consequences and effects of dominant economic, social and political paradigms are pressing upon people, damaging democracy and fomenting feelings of frustration, helplessness and despair. It is now when creating together, wisely and hopefully, matters most.

Across the world, the wider commons movement is growing hopeful alternatives to the dispiriting status quo. Peer-to-peer networks of organisation and production are on the increase, multiplying exponentially year by year. Working together, collectives of diversely experienced volunteers and professionals in various sectors are facing into challenges creatively and with concern for the common good. In their ‘small acts of creative transgression’1 these citizen commoners are using open source methods, cooperative learning and collaborative approaches to design and development. New civic and cultural ecosystems are springing up everywhere providing alternatives to economic and social organisation and development. Take Platform Cooperativism2 , for example; or the Urban Commons plans in Ghent3, Barcelona4 and Bologna5 , to name but a few; or the more ethical blockchain developments in digital currency such as FairCoin6. These movements are well beyond the hopeful aspiration stage. They are on the ground, happening and here to stay.

The practices, principles and values of the commons and ‘commoning’, are very relevant and directly applicable to the world of creatively cultural activity. Indeed, in a time when perceptions of priority regarding use of the public purse are leading politicians and policy makers to cut back on funding for ‘the arts and culture’, the ways of thinking and acting that are associated with the commons and commoning need to be highlighted and heeded. Cultural commoning happens when people come together through personal choice to initiate and grow creative activity and practices through participative and collaborative approaches. It acknowledges the abundance we have around us and offers a pragmatic and complementary approach to sustaining the means of cultural creation in local places. It sits alongside the public sector and private enterprise with perhaps the most potential being realised when interdependencies are recognised and built upon. And, in enacting alternative ways

of working, cultural commoning is exerting influence through contributing to processes of transformative innovation, the need for which is becoming ever more evident and urgent.

In the sphere of cultural creativity not least, we have the advantage that the basic resources and building blocks of cultural creativity - the knowledge, the practices, the human impulse to express ourselves creatively - are held in common. These abundant human resources are accessible to everyone. At any given point we can draw from this rich reservoir to imagine and create anew.

More contested are the means by which we turn these building blocks into new expressions, unique to us and by which we nurture, share and celebrate our individual and collective creative acts. The cultural landscape is more fragmented and complicated here. And there are more enclosures.

One next step, as we look to provoke thinking, inspire doing and help to form an enabling environment of policy and practice within which culturally creative commoning in diverse ways and places becomes more of the norm, is to name it and explore it actively as emerging next practice. The series of articles in the following pages aims to do just that.

Perspectives

Cultural Commons and Social Wellbeing

Nat O’Connor

Researchers are making headway in trying to understand and assess what brings people satisfaction in life, based on psychology and better knowledge of the material conditions people need to live a decent life. While this will always be incomplete, we are perhaps on the threshold of having a workable social science of human wellbeing. And any wellbeing science needs to include the value of aesthetics, creativity and selfrealisation.

A lot of old certainties are fading, such as full-time jobs for life, home ownership, widely shared religious faith, and guaranteed access to a social ‘safety net’ of core public services. People move between localities more often than in the past, and may have various networks through which they derive income for work. Many of us have contact with far more people than previous generations did. But so many of these connections are fleeting, often mediated by social media, rather than long-term relationships.

All of this can undermine our sense of identity and cause angst rather than give a solid foundation to our lives. With the radical shrinking of the foundations of collective identity and a sense of self, many people feel the need to find new forms of kinship to reassert their humanity in an increasingly alienating economy.

To be a force that brings people together in new ways, cultural commons have to harness all of the power of the arts to speak frankly about the deepest concerns of people - mortality, frailty, loss, loneliness, meaninglessness and despair. According to Socrates, an unexamined life is not worth living. Cultural commons at their best should help us examine our lives and to commune with others in the achievement of a mindful and worthwhile human existence. That does not mean that manifestations of cultural commons cannot be fun. On the contrary, merriment, celebration and joyfulness are also an important part of life lived well.

If I were to describe a cultural commons, I would say it allows anyone to claim the public square - at least for a time - in order to put forward their ideas in whatever form their creativity takes, and to invite both friends and strangers to share the experience. The three elements that come together to empower cultural commons are:

• local infrastructure

• creative resources

• custodianship.

Local infrastructure can be permanent or temporary. It includes physical space and buildings, but also invisible infrastructure such as insurance cover or local authority permission. Public bodies, voluntary bodies, businesses and even private individuals can provide such infrastructure.

Creative resources are held by individuals and groups, and include both personal resources of imagination, ideas and skills, and physical resources, such as art materials, musical instruments, electronic equipment, or whatever is needed to bring a creative vision into existence.

Custodianship implies that motivated individuals need to co-operate in order that whatever they create does not fade with the dawn and continues to benefit the wider community. Some creativity may be purposefully ephemeral. But nonetheless even bringing something into existence in the first place requires some organisation and forethought.

Commons are shared resources carefully minded by a community for their mutual benefit. Traditional commons - from the park bench to the public library - have for centuries permitted people to be in contact with one another in a civilised and civilising environment.

For new cultural commons to make a worthwhile contribution, there needs to be a self-aware network of cultural agitators who understand their role as leaders of collective working towards the emancipation of humanity from the constraints imposed by unregulated capitalism and environmental ruin, not just as providers of entertainment. And such cultural leaders need to be informed about human psychology and the factors that help people lead good lives.

We know that people require a minimum level of material conditions to attain a decent quality of life - as illustrated, for example, by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s Minimum Income Standard7 for the UK, or by the Minimum Essential Standard of Living8 described by the VPSJ in Ireland. People need the means to have a decent quality of food and drink, clothing, housing and domestic