Van Den Broeck, Pieter

Land tenure relations in Greece are shaped by the dominant dichotomy between private and public property. Cases of common land, locally managed by formal and customary law, are very scarce and sparsely distributed across the country. In the Ionian Archipelago, the Domestic Estate of Kythira Island (DEK), forms such an exceptional case. The Domestic Estate is a historical commons, with its roots dating back to the 15th century, the era of the Venetian Empire’s occupation on the island. Today, it is still active, encompassing all the non-private areas of the island, that are legally acknowledged by the Greek State as the common, ex ab indiviso property of the local people of Kythira. The governance of the common property of Kythira is executed by a specific body, the Committee for the DEK, whose members are elected by the local municipal council.

States are in a constant pressure to redefine their spatial development strategies to address discrepancies between increasing and often conflicting land demands and sustainable development. Commons, on the other hand, activated by concerns of decommodification, solidarity and equity, reclaim and provide socio-economic alternatives to restore ecological values and counteract socio-ecological crises produced by extractive capitalism. This study is part of a book that will be published in 2025 and aims to contribute to the panel’s topic by adding the discussion around the role of the state in supporting or hindering commons as alternative forms of self-organisation and governance, and critical actants of more sustainable and equitable cities.

We go through case studies that span across seven EU countries and Morocco to explore: (1) how commons emerge as socio-ecological agents, through which communities re-invent property and creatively re-define modes of ‘provisioning’, and (2) how states either hinder, or ally with-, support, or inspire commoning practices setting the ground for improved land governance. The selected cases address a diversity of themes including sustainable food systems, affordable housing provision, urban land occupation and land use planning legislation, and urban cultural commons.

The question addressed is: how can states support and enable the proliferation of commons? Since there is no single answer to this question applying to all commons, countries and contexts, we delve into different cases and state configurations to provide more nuanced answers. Therefore, state-commons interactions are approached differently in each case and discussed with theoretical lenses that range from Ostromean approaches to anarchist perspectives and stretch towards political-cultural ecology, social solidarity economy, strategic-relational institutionalism, new municipalism, socially innovative governance, and critical legal theory. This work contributes to the panel's core question by illustrating how urban commons reshape responsibility, power dynamics, and access to resources while concretely contributing to socio-ecological transitions.