This document discusses two urban gardening initiatives in Thessaloniki, Greece: Kipos3 and PERKA. Kipos3 was formed in 2014 in an urban area near the city center by architects and an agriculturist, and aims to transform unused urban spaces into common gardening areas. PERKA was formed in 2011 at a former military camp by citizens seeking to cultivate the land organically based on principles of solidarity and self-sufficiency. The document analyzes the initiatives through the theoretical frameworks of urban political ecology and urban commons, examining their imaginaries and everyday practices. It finds that while Kipos3 introduces new public spaces through expertise, PERKA more strongly challenges social and spatial norms through collective decision

1. Experimenting
with
Matina Kapsali* & Maria Karagianni**
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
AUTONOMA Towards the collective city
1-2 July 2016, Athens
*skapsali@arch.auth.gr, **mkaragi@arch.auth.gr
From active citizenship
to being-in-common
urban
gardening

2. Introduction
•Urban gardening initiatives as a type of collectively produced space;
•Not an a priori revolutionary re-appropriation of public space from the
people;
•Social, political and environmental dimensions equally important for
unpacking their urban imaginaries & everyday praxis;
Case studies: Kipos3
& Peri-Urban Gardening Group (PERKA) in Thessaloniki

3. Structure
•Theoretical framework: Urban political Ecology & Urban
Commons
•Research methodology
•Urban gardening initiatives in Thessaloniki
•Comparative analysis of Kipos3
& PERKA
•Concluding remarks

4. Urban gardens as commons?
Theoretical framework

5. Urban gardening initiatives
Radical approaches:
•“spaces of contestation” | Eizenberg, Staeheli, Mitchell, Gibson
•“spaces of control” | Pudup
•“spaces of neoliberalisation” | Quastel
Multiple differences between initiatives & spaces
Need for a more holistic analysis

6. Theoretical framework
Urban
political
ecology
Urban
commons

7. Urban political ecology
“environmental values
drawn from a moral
community have as
much to say about the
politics of the community
as they do about the
environment.”
Harvey, 1993
Axes:
•Environmental
•Political
•Ideological
•Social

8. Urban commoning
the common is “the opening
of a space between
beings (things), and the
indefinite, maybe infinite
possibility that this
space opens, reopens,
changes and modalises”
Nancy, 2010
• Political & social dimensions of space
at the centre of analysis
Urban commons:
1. are produced;
2. present a set of ‘livelihood qualities
over which rights are negotiated;
3. Include non-commodified practices;
and
4. necessitate communities – the
commoners

9. Unpacking the urban gardens
The imaginaries and everyday praxis of grassroots initiatives

10. Research methodology I
utopia as a “process of
becoming, but one that is
already geographically
realisable within the
interstices of everyday urban
practice, [since this]
constitutes precisely the
foundation for transformative
urban programmes”
Swyngedouw & Kaika, 2003
• Politics of
possibility |
Gibson-Graham
• Everyday life as the
level of analysis |
Lefebvre

11. Research methodology II
Imaginaries
Everyday
praxis

12. Research methods
Fieldwork: March-May 2016
•5 semi-structured in-depth interviews;
•Document, and public & radio talks’ by participants collection &
analysis;
•Announcements and publications by the initiatives or the local online
& printed press;
•Participant observation.

13. Urban gardening initiatives in
Thessaloniki
A comparative analysis of Kipos3
& PERKA

16. • Formed: 2011
• Area: former military camp Karatasou
• Citizen-led initiative in collaboration with
the Cultural Club Karatasou
Peri-urban Gardening (Perka)

17. Self-
sufficiency
Solidarity
Food
quality

18. • Central goal: the communal cultivation
based on the principles of organic
farming
• Decision-making: assemblies
• Build solidarity network

19. A new relationship between
nature and the city “through the
principles of communality, self-
management, egalitarianism and
continued education, outside any political
party lines”

21. Kipos3
– City as a Resource
• Formed: 2014
• location: municipal area near the city centre
• Two architects and one agriculturist
• In cooperation with the Municipality of Thessaloniki
• Funded by Aggelopoulos Foundation through the programme
Aggelopoulos – Clinton GIU Fellowship.
• With the support of the School of Architecture and Agriculture
of AUTh

22. •Aim: “the transformation of
unformed spaces and urban
voids into spots for common
gardening and activities, driving
a broader impact on Greek city’s
everyday life”
Kipos3
– City as a Resource

23. “Reveal food in the core of the
crisis discussion, not as a means
of self-sufficiency only, but
mainly as a key tool for building
in a holistic way urban
resilience”

24. Organization
Knowledge production
Collaborating actors

25. PERKA
• Formal & informal ways
of knowledge production
• Informal resource of
learning

26. Kipos3
• Expert knowledge
“Focus on the importance of
professional knowledge [...] in
order to present spatial premises
for a good life”

27. “Against the
privatization,
segmentation,
selling out of the
land and
construction on it”

28. Municipality
“I love my city, I adopt my neighborhood”
Private sector
E.g. Agris Inc.
Civil Society
“[PERKA] is focused on the necessity for ideological and political background
which was out of the team’s scope”
Kipos3

29. Active citizenship or being-in-
common?

30. A new notion of
citizenship that pushes
the boundaries of
formal decision-making
processes and expands
it towards citizens

31. Kipos3
• Expert-led initiative
• New spaces in the city but
without challenging the
existing framework
• Ameliorate life in the city and
the city itself
• No strong sense of collectivism
• Funded by private capital and
donations
• Active citizens - not
commoners
PERKA
• Collective action that challenge
the hegemonic social and
spatial order
• Non-commodified practices
• Environmental and political
scope
• Decision-making through
assemblies
• Being-in-common

32. Thank you!