IZPA adopts the principles of New Generation Municipalism, which focuses on current global dynamics. The New Generation Municipalism approach promotes green transition (sustainability), digital transition (technology), and social transition (participation) in local governments. It describes a comprehensive and agile governance model aimed at making cities more livable, sustainable, and citizen-oriented.
It is necessary to approach this socio-ecological transition process with a long-term perspective and to move beyond the traditional understanding of economic development.
New Generation Municipalism emphasizes the democratization of power, the creation of negotiation and participatory decision-making mechanisms, stakeholder contributions in knowledge production, strengthening individuals’ capabilities, highlighting the importance of local knowledge and local context, defining local sustainable development, focusing on societal solutions, and taking externalities and crises into account.
“Commons are a prerequisite for the green (ecological) transition.” (1)
When developing the Izmir vision, priority should be given to practices that improve the city-region ecosystem; promote social and ecological rights and the transformative social paradigm of commoning; prioritize public space and the transition to a social market instead of private ownership and competitive markets; and aim to build restorative and anticipatory structures while reducing the ecological footprint of the city. Commons are not only a political philosophy and policy agenda but also an active and living process. They relate to social practices such as mutual support, negotiation, and communication required to establish systems that govern shared resources. (2)
“Commons promise a major transformation both as a paradigm, a discourse, an ethic, and as a set of social practices.” (3)
Common space emerges through commoning practices and is the product of specific forms of commoning, but it also shapes the subjects and practices of commoning itself. Space is an active form of social relations, a constructive element, and a set of relationships. For space to remain common, there must be mechanisms that ensure the continuity of contributions from those invited to use it.
A common space, such as an urban garden, cannot be fixed as a product because it continues to produce those who produce it. Defining common space merely as a space with a property status different from public and private spaces eliminates the potential of the commoning process. Common space is a set of social relations that goes beyond a property status and has the potential to challenge the foundations of property itself. Strengthening both material and immaterial commons is an effective way to address the systemic ecological crises faced worldwide. (4) The implementation of institutional structures such as New Generation Municipalism, which facilitate the development of commons that enable new political, facilitative, and regulatory relationships, also represents a shift from a top-down planning approach to a commons-based city approach where various urban projects are facilitated and supported.
Five main actors play a role in this institutionalization: the city itself, entrepreneurs, social commons, knowledge institutions such as universities and research centers, and citizen initiatives that can also be described as social innovation. (5) Commons and commoning practices are prerequisites for the transition to the principles of New Generation Municipalism.
1 Bauwens, M., & Onzia, Y, Commons Transition Plan for the City of Ghent, Commons Transition, 8, 2017.
2 Bollier, D, Commoning as a transformative social paradigm, in The New Systems Reader, Routledge, 2020: 348-361.
3 Bollier, Commoning as a transformative social paradigm, 348-361.
4 Stavrides, S, Common Space: The City as Commons, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016.
5 Bauwens, M, & Onzia, Y, Commons Transition Plan for the City of Ghent, Commons Transition, 8, 2017.
