Essai

The impact of urban commons in official planning practice

Case study of the former military camp Karatasiou, in Thessaloniki, Greece

Sokratis SeitanidisGiorgos Gritzas

Amid crisis and austerity, spatial planning in Southern European countries has been used as a ‘prototype’ for new rounds of neoliberalization and a political space that continuously develops through top-down/bottom-up dialectic conflicts. Within this context, planning practice and legislative framework in Greece has focused on attracting direct foreign investments by privatizing big parcels of public property. Despite these restrictive conditions, new partnerships between urban commons and local authorities emerge and highlight the urban commons’ potential as a stakeholder in the planning process. We study the history and interview the key...