E.09. Spaces of Commons in Education: Learning Democracy through Practices of Togetherness

This panel explores commons in (non) formal educational settings as an alternative synthesis of practice and theory, where spatial and relational practices challenge the institutional, disciplinary, hierarchical, and market-driven structure of society while strengthening democracy. Emerging from a view of learning as a collective and affective process that transcends individualized achievement and competitiveness, the panel foregrounds spaces of commons as fluid environments shaped through processes of commoning, where knowledge, care and responsibility circulate horizontally among participants. These spaces include schools, museums, libraries, community centers and other cultural and public environments.

Within such spaces, democracy is not approached as a distant ideal to be taught but unfolds through commoning as a lived practice, continually enacted and materialized within shared practices of togetherness. Through these everyday encounters, the “ambience of the commons” is sustained, an atmosphere where practical aesthetics becomes a site of cultivation of democratic relationships among equals.

Drawing on childhood and youth studies, the panel also problematizes how educational commons creates the conditions for children and youth to act as present citizens and political subjects. In this sense, it goes beyond participation, bolstering shared responsibility in shaping how things are done and decided. The panel raises a central question: How does the commoning of educational, cultural and public spaces generate new imaginaries of democracy as practices of togetherness on an equal footing? Through theoretical and empirical contributions, the panel invites interdisciplinary perspectives to discuss how shaping space as a commons transforms both learning and living together thereby deepening democracy.