commons-public partnerships

An example of municipal infratsructure for the cooperative economy.

An agreement of long-term cooperation between commoners and state institutions to meet specific needs.

– [[Free, Fair and Alive]]

services would be run by a joint enterprise co-owned and co-managed by a community association and a state authority.

– [[Platform socialism]]

One alternative model of economic ownership that could assist digital civic platforms is public–common partnerships (PCPs), which allow local communities and municipal authorities to participate in a joint enterprise.

– [[Platform socialism]]

A clever twist on the public/private partnership is the commons/public partnership in which [[commoner]]s act as working partners with municipal governments in tackling important need.

– Hacking the Law to Open Up Zones of Commoning - Resilience

I’ve also seen it called [[public-commons partnerships]]. I think they both refer to the same thing.

a reversal to the familiar model of development in which public resources and community assets are transferred into private hands

– [[How ‘Public-Common Partnerships’ Can Help Us Take Back What’s Ours]]

the opportunity for resources to move not just the other way (from private to public) but also from public to ‘the commons’ – not just collective ownership but a model which has decentralised democratic governance built into it.

– [[How ‘Public-Common Partnerships’ Can Help Us Take Back What’s Ours]]

Public-common partnerships are co-owned and co-governed infrastructures – what we call a ‘joint enterprise’ – where the establishment of a common association is essential to making decisions and controlling resources autonomously from, but in partnership with, state authorities

– [[How ‘Public-Common Partnerships’ Can Help Us Take Back What’s Ours]]

common associations – which may variably take the legal form of a consumer cooperative, mixed cooperative, or community interest company – have both the capacity and obligation to redirect surplus towards supporting and expanding other public-common partnerships

– [[How ‘Public-Common Partnerships’ Can Help Us Take Back What’s Ours]]

Importantly, public-common partnerships won’t come about solely through local governments passing policy. Whereas the politicians who pushed through public-private partnerships and private finance initiatives were in cahoots with a cadre of financiers who served to make a profit, public-common partnerships need a cadre drawn from social movements

– [[How ‘Public-Common Partnerships’ Can Help Us Take Back What’s Ours]]

social movements can force transparency onto opaque political and business decision-making, raising the political costs of ‘business as usual’ and helping to open up new political possibilities. Secondly, they can act as a catalyst for the formation of a common association, providing the initial lifeblood of any joint enterprise.

– [[How ‘Public-Common Partnerships’ Can Help Us Take Back What’s Ours]]

As the expansive nature of PCPs leads to a more diverse and complex web of commonly-directed utilities and resources, we can increasingly guarantee collective and sustainable access to food, energy, water, housing and other basic human rights

– [[How ‘Public-Common Partnerships’ Can Help Us Take Back What’s Ours]]

Such a radical democratisation of ownership and governance functions as a ‘training in democracy’ while producing the stable material conditions upon which increased political participation becomes possible. It is a project of an ever-deeper democratisation of society

– [[How ‘Public-Common Partnerships’ Can Help Us Take Back What’s Ours]]

through bringing together local communities, municipal governments and socially-responsible experts – can ensure the benefits of urban development are democratically and equitably distributed towards meaningful social outcomes

– [[How ‘Public-Common Partnerships’ Can Help Us Take Back What’s Ours]]

How does the relationship work?

State institutions provide vital legal, financial, and/ or administrative support to commoners, and commoners provide services to each other and the broader public.

– [[Free, Fair and Alive]]

[[Who creates commons-public partnerships?]]

What are some examples?

Examples include community-driven Wi-Fi systems, care such as nursing and eldercare, and neighborhood-managed projects implemented with government support.

– [[Free, Fair and Alive]]

one example of this model in practice we could turn to the German energy co-operative BEG Wolfhagen, which pays local residents an annual divided and allows them to take part in decisions of how profits from the company are invested

– [[Platform socialism]]

In London, Islington Council has supported the creation of Space4, a tech co-op working space run by digital agency [[Outlandish]], with the aim of nurturing new start-ups in the co-operative digital economy.

– [[Platform socialism]]

also funded Wings, a new co-operative food delivery platform in the Finsbury Park area that offers living wages to riders, runs a zero emissions service and attempts to shift customers away from the exploitative model of the major food delivery platform companies

– [[Platform socialism]]