Browsing by Author "Diprose G"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Can the commons be temporary? The role of transitional commoning in post-quake Christchurch
    (3/04/2019) Dombroski K; Diprose G; Boles I
    In recent work on commons and commoning, scholars have argued that we might delink the practice of commoning from property ownership, while paying attention to modes of governance that enable long-term commons to emerge and be sustained. Yet commoning can also occur as a temporary practice, in between and around other forms of use. In this article we reflect on the transitional commoning practices and projects enabled by the Christchurch post-earthquake organisation Life in Vacant Spaces, which emerged to connect and mediate between landowners of vacant inner city demolition sites and temporary creative or entrepreneurial users. While these commons are often framed as transitional or temporary, we argue they have ongoing reverberations changing how people and local government in Christchurch approach common use. Using the cases of the physical space of the Victoria Street site “The Commons” and the virtual space of the Life in Vacant Spaces website, we show how temporary commoning projects can create and sustain the conditions of possibility required for nurturing commoner subjectivities. Thus despite their impermanence, temporary commoning projects provide a useful counter to more dominant forms of urban development and planning premised on property ownership and “permanent” timeframes, in that just as the physical space of the city being opened to commoning possibilities, so too are the expectations and dispositions of the city’s inhabitants, planners, and developers.
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    Cultivating commoners: Infrastructures and subjectivities for a postcapitalist counter-city
    (Elsevier B.V., 2023-12-01) Dombroski K; Conradson D; Diprose G; Healy S; Yates A
    In this paper, we investigate how infrastructure and care shape commoner subjectivities. In our research into an urban youth farm in Aotearoa New Zealand, we heard and observed profound tales of growth and transformation among youth participants. Not only were our interviewees narrating stories of individual transformation (of themselves and others), but they also spoke of transformations in the way they engaged with the world around them, including the land and garden and its many species and ecological systems, the food system more generally, the wider community and their co-workers. Such transformations were both individual and collective, having more in common with the collective caring subject homines curans than the autonomous, rational work-ready subject of homo economicus. Using postcapitalist theory on commons, commoning and subjectivity, we argue that these socio-affective encounters with more-than-human commons enabled collective, caring commoner subjectivities to emerge and to be cultivated through collective care in place. We suggest that the commons can be thought of as an infrastructure of care for the counter-city, providing the conditions for the emergence and cultivation of collective caring urban subjects.
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    Delivering Urban Wellbeing through Transformative Community Enterprise
    (2019) Dombroski K; Diprose G; Conradson D; Healy S; Watkins A
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    Emerging transitions in organic waste infrastructure in Aotearoa New Zealand
    (John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2023-04-01) Diprose G; Dombroski K; Sharp E; Yates A; Peryman B; Barnes M
    Aotearoa New Zealand is at a critical juncture in reducing and managing organic waste. Research has highlighted the significant proportion of organic waste sent to landfills and associated adverse effects such as greenhouse gas emissions and loss of valuable organic matter. There is current debate about what practices and infrastructure to invest in to better manage and use organic waste. We highlight the diversity of existing organic waste practices and infrastructures, focusing on Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. We show how debates about organic waste practices and infrastructure connect across three themes: waste subjectivities, collective action in place and language.
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    Food for people in place: reimagining resilient food systems for economic recovery
    (MDPI (Basel, Switzerland), 2020-11-11) Dombroski K; Diprose G; Sharp E; Graham R; Lee L; Scobie M; Richardson S; Watkins A; Martin-Neuninger R
    The COVID-19 pandemic and associated response have brought food security into sharp focus for many New Zealanders. The requirement to “shelter in place” for eight weeks nationwide, with only “essential services” operating, affected all parts of the New Zealand food system. The nationwide full lockdown highlighted existing inequities and created new challenges to food access, availability, affordability, distribution, transportation, and waste management. While Aotearoa New Zealand is a food producer, there remains uncertainty surrounding the future of local food systems, particularly as the long-term effects of the pandemic emerge. In this article we draw on interviews with food rescue groups, urban farms, community organisations, supermarket management, and local and central government staff to highlight the diverse, rapid, community-based responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings reveal shifts at both the local scale, where existing relationships and short supply chains have been leveraged quickly, and national scale, where funding has been mobilised towards a different food strategy. We use these findings to re-imagine where and how responsibility might be taken up differently to enhance resilience and care in diverse food systems in New Zealand.
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    When Cultivate Thrives: Developing Criteria for Community Economy Return on Investment
    (University of Canterbury, 2018-04) Dombroski K; Diprose G; Conradson D; Healy S; Watkins A
    Urban communities around the world are using farming and gardening to promote food security, social inclusion and wellbeing. For Christchurch-based Cultivate, urban farms are not only physical places but also incorporate an innovative community economy premised on using common resources such as vacant urban land and green waste, to offer care for urban youth. Cultivate’s two urban farms are an important aspect of this care, for it is here that supportive and informally therapeutic environments are co-created and experienced by youth interns, urban farmers, trained social workers and volunteers. Cultivate’s urban farms are innovative examples of creative urban wellbeing initiatives that may be valuable for other organisations seeking to promote youth wellbeing and social development, both across New Zealand and further afield. To document and measure the holistic impact of Cultivate, we used a collaborative approach with Cultivate stakeholders to further develop an existing assessment tool: the Community Economy Return on Investment (CEROI). The project will finish in November 2018 with a series of workshops with urban designers to test and promote the use of the tool as a method for communicating the non-monetary return on investment to a wider community involved with other urban wellbeing projects.