Session 9. 13.

In Italy, and in the rest of Europe, the urban centres as well as the suburbs and inner areas of many cities have witnessed the spread of bottom-up collective action on the part of old and new citizens, rooted in the territory and aimed at ensuring the collective use of urban resources or commons, such as streets, parks, buildings and services, for the benefit of the general interest. Such activism is particularly interesting in the Italian case, where the crisis of conventional forms of participation is severe, while in just over a decade there has been a ferment of other forms of political participation from below, aimed at claiming public spaces for a better practice of citizenship. Urban commons have been studied from different perspectives, and others have already highlighted the role of trust in sustaining the commoning practices. However, we still lack knowledge about the role of trust from a dynamic-relational perspective. Adopting a sociological point of view, in this study I will merge collective action and commons theories, to explore in depth the solidarity mechanisms that underpin trust as a resource that enables the strengthening, but also the emergence, of urban commoning. As we will see, commoning in Italian cities emerges from previous experiences at the urban level, from urban mobilisations to civic participation, which lead to the production of trust-based relationships that often transmute into commoning. During the commoning phase, new incentives for solidarity are distributed, resulting from the creation of new jobs, the promotion of social and environmental justice, the representation of needs such as the availability of a service deemed important and the role of the social presidium. These in turn lead to more trusting and resilient collective action. The analysis of such processes will be carried out through a thematic analysis of interviews conducted with relevant actors in different Italian urban contexts.

Around 23% of an eastern Indian state, Odisha’s urban families (1.56 m people) squat in slums (Census, 2011). Tenure insecurity coupled with migrant status and absence of identity and address papers deprive them accessing their legitimate entitlements. While these slum dwellers help run the city life as street-vendors, house-helps, drivers, plumbers, sanitation workers, daily-wagers, they themselves struggle for shelter, secured livelihood and basic amenities.

With community stewardship of the Slum-Dwellers Association (SDAs) with 50% women members and the women Self-Help Groups (WSHGs), Odisha, has successfully formalised the land rights of the slum-dwellers under The Odisha Land Rights to Slum Dwellers Act, 2017 through a participatory process. Joint titles, in the name of both spouses of the slum-dwellers, have been issued to the land under their possession measuring up to 30 sqm free of cost for residential use in the Urban local Bodies (ULBs). The land titling empowers the slum dwellers with heritable and mortgageable rights over the land for which titles. Land titles are also issued for area beyond 30 sqm. up to 45 sqm. in medium ULBs and 60 sqm. in smaller ULBs on payment by the occupant.

Post titling, these community-based collectives - SDAs and WSHGs - have engaged in economic activities under the Mukhya Mantri Karma Tatpara Abhiyan (MUKTA), 2021 (previously UWEI) that mandates to construct basic public amenity projects both in slum and non-slum areas in partnership with SDAs and WSHGs as the “community partners”. These community stewards have constructed 1016 public gyms, 824 mini parks, 724 child play station and 156 KM paver-block walking tracks in 115 ULBs of Odisha.

Once marginalised and subdued, these women are now economically empowered by executing projects of more than 10 billion INR and have earned 7.5% of the project cost as their supervision charges.

Women are central custodians of their families. Women constitute at least half of the population in most countries worldwide, yet their role in peacebuilding is often undermined, especially among the pastoral communities where patriarchal structures dominate. Women are increasingly being acknowledged as dual agents of conflicts and peace but the dearth of knowledge on their contribution in peacebuilding would jeopardize policy interventions around women, security, and peace. This article leveraged qualitative research design. Data was collected through semi-structured and key informant interviews, focus groups, and case narrations, with women in West Pokot County, Kenya, who had been actively involved in peacebuilding activities to unveil their roles in peacebuilding in this conflict-stricken region. Participant observation and archival data were also employed in the study. Thematic content analysis denoted an inhospitable region with elusive socio-economic progress occasioned by protracted intra- and intercommunity conflicts driving women's fight for peace. From developing early warning systems and leveraging their matriarchal influence, social networks, religious spaces, and integration of cultural perspectives in peacemaking, Pokot women deterred warriors from cattle rustling promoting peace in the region. The transformative peacebuilding efforts of Pokot women advocate for a paradigm shift in global conflict resolution strategies emphasizing inclusion, adaptability and sustainability

Within discussions of land and resource rights, feminist scholarship and advocacy, along with numerous empirical studies, have drawn attention to the importance of women’s land rights. However, this work focuses primarily on household and individual rights to private property. This leaves unanswered questions about whether and how women’s land rights can be secured under collective tenure. Because billions of people worldwide depend on the commons and resources under collective tenure, understanding women’s rights within this context requires new conceptual tools, empirical understanding, and policy recommendations. To lay the foundations for a sound body of empirical studies and appropriate policies, we develop a conceptual framework to improve understanding of women’s land rights under collective tenure, based on the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework. We discuss what secure tenure for women on collective lands would entail, then present our framework for factors that would affect women’s tenure security. We give attention to particularities of rangelands, forests, and other types of collective lands as well as commonalities across types. A key theme that emerges is that for women to have secure tenure under collective tenure, the collective (group) itself must have tenure security and the women must have secure rights within this group. The latter requires us to consider the governance structures, how men and women access and control land, and the extent to which women have voice and power within the collective. More consistent analyses of collective tenure systems using the conceptual framework presented in this paper can help to identify which action resources are important for groups to secure rights to collective lands, and for women to advocate for their rights within the group.

The increasing frequency of both natural and manmade disasters globally has amplified their impact on vulnerable populations, especially marginalized communities and further on women. These disasters—ranging from floods and droughts to wars and communal violence—disproportionately affect women, exacerbating the physical, psychological, social, and political marginalization. The study investigates the critical and often unrecognized ‘water anxiety’ defined as, the mental stress stemming from uncertainty regarding access to water and sanitation during and after disasters. The disasters causing physical displacements intensify the physical, psychological, social, and gender challenges, placing a heavier burden on women. The study aimed to examine the relationships between disasters led displacement with provisioning of water security, and further between the women's anxiety and their resilience in managing water uncertainty and scarcity. The study is part of a project that plans to facilitate water security by bridging the affected communities and the donor organizations. The objective of the paper is to highlight the pattern of water anxiety from the findings and learning from case studies namely, recurring hurricane in Acapulco, Mexico; recurring GLOF (glacier lake outburst flood) affected Kalimpong, India; recurring earthquake in Lamjung District, Nepal; 2023 communal violence in Kakching, India; and 2024 landslides in Wayanad District, India. The approach to study includes ethnographic surveys, qualitative and quantitative tools. Collaborating with local partners—particularly women—and partnering with local NGOs and government entities play a pivotal role in implementing initiatives to understand water anxiety to incorporate them in the water security. The key takeaway from the study is that water anxiety needs factoring in the water security policies and funding to be able to address the water apathy of the disaster affected communities. Besides, the community resilience building among the vulnerable women is worth documenting and dissemination learning.