The Urban Commons Cookbook: Strategies and Insights for Creating and Maintaining Urban Commons

Which ingredients of a cooperative community project most help it succeed? What are urban commons and how do they fit into current activist and civil society debates? And what tools and methods do commoners need to strengthen their work? These are the three questions at the heart of The Urban Commons Cookbook, a handbook for those interested in starting, growing and supporting community-led projects.

This book represents a first attempt to bridge the gaps between individual urban commons projects across resource types and geographical distances in order to show their commonalities and help them and new projects learn from each other's experiences. Through a reader-friendly overview of urban commons theory, interviews with eight commons projects outlining the growth of their projects, the challenges they faced, and the methods they employed to surmount them, and a wealth of practical tools and policy suggestions, we hope to support commons projects and the cities that they enrich.

Dr. Mary Dellenbaugh-Losse is an urban researcher, consultant, and author focusing on facilitating the development of inclusive, co-produced cities. Her work spans a diverse range of topics, including urban commons, cultural & creative industries, intermediate & adaptive reuse of vacant buildings, participation of underrepresented groups, and the political, symbolic, & normative aspects of architecture and urban planning. Dr. Dellenbaugh-Losse completed her BSc with honors at the University of New Hampshire in 2006. She moved to Germany in 2007, where she successfully completed both a master in landscape architecture and a doctorate in human geography. In 2016, after positions in academia and the non-profit sector, she founded her own consultancy. Today, her work comprises project development and management for a variety of funding schemes, including EU (H2020, Erasmus+ KA2, URBACT), German federal (BMBF, BBSR), state, municipal, and foundation-funded projects, as well as commissioned expertise on the topics mentioned above. In 2017, she was validated by the EU program URBACT as an expert for integrated urban renewal, arts and culture, and the design and delivery of transnational exchange and learning activities. She has lectured at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin, and the Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft and is the author and co-editor of several books, including Urban Commons: Moving beyond State and Market, Städtewandel durch Kultur, The Urban Commons Cookbook, and Inventing Berlin: Architecture, Politics and Cultural Memory in the New/Old German Capital Post-1989.

Nils-Eyk Zimmermann is an author, program manager, and expert for topics related to civil society. He is the co-author of "Diversity Dynamics - Activating the Potential of Diversity in Groups," "Initiative Cookbook," "Creativity Handbook," and other books geared at activists and facilitators. He is owner of the blog Civil Resilience.

Nicole de Vries works in the field of public participation and sustainable (urban) development.