A photograph of performers in the Free Theatre performance of 'The Earthquake in Chile'. The performance is taking place in St Mary's Church.
A photograph of the opening of the Think Differently Book Exchange. In the centre of the photograph, two people are browsing the books in the fridge, and to the left people are sitting at a picnic table reading.
A photograph of performers in the Free Theatre performance of 'The Earthquake in Chile'. The performance is taking place in St Mary's Square.
A photograph of people painting wooden pallets, to be used for the Lyttelton Pentanque Club.
A photograph of a small wooden hut at the entrance to the Ministry of Justice car parks.
A photograph of artist Audrey Baldwin kissing a participant at the Kissing Booth perfomance at the Addington Fun Fair.
A photograph of a small wooden hut at the entrance to the Ministry of Justice car parks.
A photograph of a small wooden hut at the entrance to the Ministry of Justice car parks.
A photograph of a small wooden hut at the entrance to the Ministry of Justice car parks.
A photograph of a small wooden hut at the entrance to the Ministry of Justice car parks.
A photograph of a volunteer using a small digger to clear the former site of Piko Wholefoods.
A photograph of a small wooden hut at the entrance to the Ministry of Justice car parks.
A photograph of a small wooden hut at the entrance to the Ministry of Justice car parks.
A photograph of plantings along a car park border in Lichfield Street.
A photograph of seating at the temporary bus exchange on Lichfield Street.
A photograph of a turbaned man sitting on top of a pillar at the Songs For Christchurch launch.
A photograph of a temporary house in Rawhiti Domain.
A photograph of volunteers working at the Fitzgerald Avenue Community Garden.
A photograph of a man and a child laying concrete at the site of the Gap Filler Community Chess project.
A photograph of people watching a musician perform at the Lyttelton Petanque Club.
A photograph of a sign for Rawhiti Village Grove.
In recent work on commons and commoning, scholars have argued that we might delink the practice of commoning from property ownership, while paying attention to modes of governance that enable long-term commons to emerge and be sustained. Yet commoning can also occur as a temporary practice, in between and around other forms of use. In this article we reflect on the transitional commoning practices and projects enabled by the Christchurch post-earthquake organisation Life in Vacant Spaces, which emerged to connect and mediate between landowners of vacant inner city demolition sites and temporary creative or entrepreneurial users. While these commons are often framed as transitional or temporary, we argue they have ongoing reverberations changing how people and local government in Christchurch approach common use. Using the cases of the physical space of the Victoria Street site “The Commons” and the virtual space of the Life in Vacant Spaces website, we show how temporary commoning projects can create and sustain the conditions of possibility required for nurturing commoner subjectivities. Thus despite their impermanence, temporary commoning projects provide a useful counter to more dominant forms of urban development and planning premised on property ownership and “permanent” timeframes, in that just as the physical space of the city being opened to commoning possibilities, so too are the expectations and dispositions of the city’s inhabitants, planners, and developers.
In recent work on commons and commoning, scholars have argued that we might delink the practice of commoning from property ownership, while paying attention to modes of governance that enable long-term commons to emerge and be sustained. Yet commoning can also occur as a temporary practice, in between and around other forms of use. In this article we reflect on the transitional commoning practices and projects enabled by the Christchurch post-earthquake organisation Life in Vacant Spaces, which emerged to connect and mediate between landowners of vacant inner city demolition sites and temporary creative or entrepreneurial users. While these commons are often framed as transitional or temporary, we argue they have ongoing reverberations changing how people and local government in Christchurch approach common use. Using the cases of the physical space of the Victoria Street site “The Commons” and the virtual space of the Life in Vacant Spaces website, we show how temporary commoning projects can create and sustain the conditions of possibility required for nurturing commoner subjectivities. Thus despite their impermanence, temporary commoning projects provide a useful counter to more dominant forms of urban development and planning premised on property ownership and “permanent” timeframes, in that just as the physical space of the city being opened to commoning possibilities, so too are the expectations and dispositions of the city’s inhabitants, planners, and developers.
A photograph of the empty site where the Outdoor Music Room is to be created.
A photograph of a banner advertising the Gap Filler Fun Fair. The banner is hung on the entrance to Church Square.
A photograph of a man and a child preparing the ground for one of the holes of Gap Filler's Gap Golf course.
A photograph of a cake stall at the Gap Filler Fun Fair. In the background is a stall selling clothing.
A photograph of buttons and other objects for sale on a market stall at the Gap Filler Fun Fair.
A photograph of volunteers testing the bicycle stand and generator mechanism that will power Gap Filler's cycle-powered cinema.
A photograph of the Gap Filler mini-golf hole in the Rotherham Clock Park in Riccarton.