Star & Shadow Cinema: A Grassroots Interface between DIY Culture, New Co-operativism and the Commons

Abstract

As democratic control of urban space is becoming less and less available under neoliberal urban ordering (Stavrides, 2016), what models exist in the UK to contest and reverse this form of enclosure and increase democracy in how urban space is managed?Using the case of Star and Shadow Cinema in Newcastle upon Tyne, this chapter explores developments in ‘new’ and ‘open’ cooperativism in line with thinking around ‘urban commoning’ to analyse a recent pattern in DIY Cinema culture. As an inflorescence of DIY counterculture, voluntarist self-managed cinemas have taken ownership of their spaces, utilizing cooperative structures to protect urban commons long term. Yet these examples are not steeped in pre-existing cooperative culture, and instead represent a political tension between the solidarity economy and common pool resources. The chapter argues that this tension can be resolved by demonstrating and promoting the practical synergies between DIY culture, commoning and new cooperativism.