The reuse trends in abandoned military land in Ljubljana, Prague and Pula. An overview through the lens of commons/Trendi ponovne uporabe opušcenih vojaških zemljišc v Ljubljani, Pragi in Pulju: pregled z vidika skupnih virov

Abstract

Managing former military land has been a challenging task, especially due to its status as a publicly owned asset. This has arisen bottom-up using commoning approaches to satisfy people’s needs. This article explores such approaches by analysing three former military barracks in central and eastern Europe: Karlo Rojc barracks, currently Rojc Community Centre (Pula, Croatia); Kasárna Karlín (Prague, Czech Republic); and Fourth of July barracks, today called Metelkova Mesto (Ljubljana, Slovenia). This article examines the conversion of these abandoned spaces to civilian use by approaching them through the lens of Ostrom’s eight design principles for successful common-pool resource institutions. By comparing the case studies through these principles, this article demonstrates how the cases are based on features that can make them proper commons, as well as potential risks related to the profit-oriented approach conducted by technocratic or growth-oriented coalitions.