Resumen de Crisis, commons i liminalitat. Rituals moderns de transició a grècia
This thesis examines the making of new commons under conditions of crisis, using as a case study alternative grassroots ventures that have emerged in urban Greece in contexts of crisis and have "commoning" at their heart: occupied squares, solidarity clinics and pharmacies, cooperatives, workers‘ collectives, solidarity food structures and self-organized refugee camps. The dissertation addresses issues of organization, expansion, closure, openness, subjectivity, trust and motivation in commoning endeavors, relates these processes with the conditions of crisis and emergency and explores the transformations in the creation and sustenance of new commons in such contexts. The focus is on the transformative potential of these experiences for individuals, groups, local societies and even large-scale formations such as countries.
To approach those issues, the thesis develops a theoretical framework called ―the liminal commons". It draws a parallel between the rituals of passage observed by anthropologists in archaic societies, in which participants went through a phase of liminality, and the transitional dynamics of new commons. The thesis argues that there are commons that act as modern rituals, whereby people and collectives who on account of the crisis have lost their core identity search for and form a new identity. The liminal commons are transitional forms of commoning that do not aspire to endure for long but to facilitate transitions. In this respect, they differ from the more stable forms of commoning usually examined by commons theories. This thesis explores these divergences and differentiations and tries to explain how these temporal commons can give rise to more stable structures. It also suggests that, due to their distinct nature, the ―success‖ of liminal commons cannot be assessed against the criteria established by existing theories.
Each empirical chapter develops a core theoretical topic. Throughout the text, the reader is walked through different theories on the commons, crisis and liminality, as well as through diverse case studies from Greece. The thesis aims to create a theoretical ―threshold‖ in which different theories cross-fertilize to make sense of an undertheorized social phenomenon. The final argument of this thesis is that the liminal commons have a considerable transformative potential at different levels and scales, from the molecular level of the individual to the macro level of society.
