Abstract
Research on common pool resources (CPR), which began with a focus on rural communities and their defining agricultural practices, shifted recently also to the urban context, looking at community gardens, city parks and other recreational facilities. This article extends the use of CPR theory to residential complexes. Courtyards, lawns, lobbies, cellars, stairwells and other parts that fall outside individual apartments are aggregated as a new sub-set of CPR, defined herewith as Residual Residential Space (RRS). Based on findings from three main types of RRS in Israel, the article evaluates some of the mechanisms designed to regulate such space. In line with earlier work on CPR, the article suggests that legal instruments, important as they are for general guidance, do not suffice. To be effective they need to echo popular framings of Residual Residential Space, to be congruent with local sensibilities regarding micro-history, and to concur with expectations stake-holders might have from their own community.
Highlights
Research of Common Pool Resources (CPR) began with studies of rural communities and their defining systems of production such as hunting, grazing, foraging and a variety of agricultural practices
The data concerning old style residential buildings in Israeli towns were derived from essays written by 109 students who participated in a course on the commons which I taught at the department of sociology and anthropology at TelAviv University between 2008 and 2012
The results provide an admittedly sketchy but suggestive indication of the extent to which lay Israelis experience Residual Residential Space (RRS) as sites of discord or cooperation
Summary
Research of Common Pool Resources (CPR) began with studies of rural communities and their defining systems of production such as hunting, grazing, foraging and a variety of agricultural practices. More recently research attention turned to urban spaces, yielding studies that deal with governance and planning in open access urban commons (Webster 2002, 2003, 2007; Low 2003; Lee and Webster 2006; Colding 2011); urban informality and its relationship with CPR (Foster 2008); collective management of urban gardens and other urban green spaces (Andersson et al 2007; Barthel et al 2010) and more. Legal and administrative tools designed to regulate RRS, it can hopefully propel a more nuanced scholarly debate on the principles and praxis of collective management of shared residential space
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