Urban commons, such as community gardens and shared neighbourhood spaces, have become more and more popular in recent years, perhaps as a response to the ongoing privatization of public space that many cities are experiencing. But do commons stand a chance against the power of the market? What is known as the ‘tragedy of the…

The smart city imagined the city as a patchwork of platforms and services to be used by it’s inhabitants and visitors as customers. When blockchain is added to the mix, should we instead imagine the city as a licence, continuously updated and different for each individual? If algorithmic ‘smart’ contracts become the arbiters of rights…

Blockchain technology is often described as a distributed logbook, a tool for administration across networks of peers that can keep track of all kinds of transactions and resources. As such, it is often seen as simply a way to make bookkeeping more efficient or transparent. However, new functionalities of the blockchain called ‘smart contracts’ make…

Written by Bastiaan van Manen   In the context of the current environmental crisis that our planet is facing, more and more disciplines are refocusing their attention on taking what Lupton (2019) has dubbed a more-than-human approach to understanding the world. This perspective involves recognizing the various ways in which the human and the “nonhuman”…

Written by Kas van der Molen     The Wadden Islands – stretching from the northwest of the Netherlands through Germany all the way up to the west of Denmark – are environmentally fragile and protected areas. One of the remarkable aspects of the area is that the sea is completely drained on low tide,…