Governmentality, the Local State, and the Commons: An Analysis of Civic Management Facilities in Barcelona

Marina Pera,Iolanda Bianchi

doi:10.17645/si.v10i1.4732

Abstract

This article deploys the Foucauldian concept of governmentality to study the political tensions that may unfold when commons are enacted through hybrid institutional configurations. We focus on civic management facilities (CMFs) that are located in the city of Barcelona. These are facilities owned by Barcelona City Council which, responding to organised citizens’ demands, are transferred to them so that they can develop their own transformative projects for the community. The hybrid institutional nature of these CMFs makes it impossible for them to avoid maintaining a relationship with the local state. Based on a survey to 51 CMFs, semi‐structured interviews with 41 grassroots members of CMFs and seven semi‐structured interviews with public employees and politicians, we argue that hybrid forms of commons lead to the development of political tensions. On the one hand, we show how the local state’s administrative procedures—to do with accountability and the use of public space—reshape the activities of the CMFs, leading to the depoliticisation of their transformative projects. On the other hand, the analysis also presents the strategies of resistance articulated by the facilities, which enable members to work towards the development of their transformative aims. We conclude that such political tensions cannot be resolved but must be properly governed in order to make the commons’ transformative project an enduring one.

Highlights

Gestió cívica (“civic management”) is a legal‐political category that includes public facilities—cultural centres, community centres, youth clubs, and more—owned by the city of Barcelona, which is governed by the Barcelona City Council ( City Council), and transferred to the non‐profit grassroots organisations that manage them: civic management facilities (CMFs)
CMFs represent a particular case of commons, since they are public facilities that have been transferred to grass‐ roots organisations and, must maintain an ongoing relationship with the local state
We have con‐ ceptualised these commoning practices as hybrid forms of commons, i.e., commons that are enacted through hybrid institutional configurations (Ferreri & Vidal, 2020; Mullins et al, 2018)

Summary

Introduction

Gestió cívica (“civic management”) is a legal‐political category that includes public facilities—cultural centres, community centres, youth clubs, and more—owned by the city of Barcelona, which is governed by the Barcelona City Council ( City Council), and transferred to the non‐profit grassroots organisations that manage them: civic management facilities (CMFs). CMFs act as commons in critical terms (De Angelis, 2018; Federici, 2018; Harvey, 2012), given that these are resources, i.e., facilities, that are self‐managed by non‐profit grassroots organisations that establish their own rules and norms to carry out socially transformative projects They represent a very particular type of commons, since the facilities are owned by the City Council, which temporarily cedes their management to the grassroots organisations and provides a yearly financial subsidy to contribute to their functioning and work in the community. CMFs are commoning practices that are enacted through hybrid institutional configurations (Mullins et al, 2018) This hybrid institu‐ tional nature means that CMFs maintain ongoing organi‐ sational relationships with the local state, which require them to comply with a set of administrative norms and bureaucratic procedures. These hybrid forms of com‐ mons are more widespread that is often thought, and we aim to contribute to understanding the types of polit‐ ical tensions that may unfold when commons develop through these hybrid institutional configurations

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Conclusion