Village (re)commoning: rethinking Hong Kong's rural built heritage as commons

Abstract

In recent years, a growing number of village revitalisation schemes have been initiated in Hong Kong by nonprofit organisations (NPOs) with expertise in ecological and heritage conservation. Although many projects have been commended for their success, villagers feel excluded and remain largely disengaged from the revitalisation process. This article proposes redefining the current understanding of Hong Kong’s rural heritage by introducing the concepts of commons and commoning as a relatively new theoretical framework for analysing village revitalisation. Although it has been mobilised in Hong Kong’s urban context, the concept of commoning is rarely used as a theoretical framework for discussing rural heritage. What new knowledge can be derived from a commoning approach to Hong Kong’s village heritage? How does this approach elucidate past assumptions regarding the value and significance of built heritage? How can the concept of commoning be used to reinterpret the relative success or failure of recent revitalisation initiatives? First, commoning can provide a better understanding of how village heritage was created and managed over time. Second, the literature on commoning provides better tools for understanding the historical processes that led to the disappearance of Hong Kong built heritage commons in the second half of the 20th century. Third, the concept of recommoning is helpful for better understanding the current situation of Hong Kong and the shortcomings experienced by some villagers. This paper also shows that many of the specificities of global contemporary recommoning are relevant to the case of Hong Kong and can partially explain the success or failure of some village revitalisation initiatives. Overall, this article reflects on how various categories of commons and the complex social process of commoning offer multiple advantages to improve our understanding of built heritage when analysing village revitalisation schemes in Hong Kong.