The relationship between conflict and peace, understood as a constitutive tension of urban life, and the role of the commons as practices of coexistence, care, and transformation of the city are at the core of the reflection developed in the special issue Urban Conflicts and Peace: Everyday Politics of Commons, edited by Stefania Ragozino (Cnr Iriss), Tihomir Viderman (BTU Cottbus–Senftenberg), and Chiara Belingardi (Cnr Istc and LaPEI – University of Florence).

Published in Tracce Urbane – Rivista Transdisciplinare di Studi Urbani, an online journal by Sapienza University of Rome, this issue investigates the political, spatial, and affective implications of this tension, offering an in-depth exploration of the commons as everyday practices of negotiation, care, and coexistence. The aim is to move beyond the dichotomy between conflict and peace, interpreting them as intertwined forces shaping urban space and fostering forms of justice and solidarity.

The collected contributions highlight a transdisciplinary perspective that brings together theory and practice, interweaving references to urban critique, feminist thought, and postcolonial studies (Lefebvre, Federici, Mouffe, Butler). Here commons are interpreted not only as alternative modes of resource management but also as relational and political processes through which diverse communities construct and experiment with practices of spatial justice and solidarity, thus becoming spaces of political experimentation and cooperation.

The publication stems from the research and dialogue initiated with the international conference Urban Conflicts and Peace: Everyday Politics of Commons, held in 2023 and organized by the AESOP Thematic Group on Public Spaces and Urban Cultures and Cnr Iriss, in collaboration with the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus–Senftenberg, the Laboratory of Ecological Design of Settlements (LaPEI) at the University of Florence, the Department of Architecture at the University of Naples Federico II, Lido Pola Common, and the Government Commissioner Structure for the environmental remediation and urban regeneration of the Bagnoli-Coroglio National Interest Site.

The issue brings together the outcomes and developments of that dialogue, combining theoretical approaches and case studies from various European and international contexts. Among the contributions are a dialogue with Jonathan Metzger (KTH Royal Institute of Technology) and Stavros Stavrides (School of Architecture, National Technical University of Athens) on the political meanings of commoning, and a photographic portfolio titled Naples: Continuity and Discontinuity, curated by Tihomir Viderman and Stefania Ragozino.

Read the special issue online