Paper short abstract:

The paper proposes that we consider gentrification as a process of uncommoning in the Anthropocene. It examines the effects of the gentrification of activism on alternative urban visions of youth identity and community in late capitalism produced through processes of commoning in a Nicosian public square, and the subsequent erosion of youth ecology.

Paper long abstract:

The paper aims to explore the gentrification of antiauthoritarian activist areas, as key areas of production of commons. It proposes that we consider gentrification as part of the multiple crises we are experiencing and as an act of uncommoning. An act that threatens and eventually dismantles processes of commoning within the areas earmarked for urban regeneration producing in this sense new enclosures. The idea proposed emerged through extended ethnographic fieldwork with an antiauthoritarian community of Cypriot activist youth and their occupation of public space in the city of Nicosia that formed the basis for the production of new commons involving processes and projects of de-alienation of youth from nationalist and neoliberal narratives, as well as production of community that could sustain collective and alternative forms of youth identity within late capitalism. Urban regeneration projects, however, appropriating the language of 'common good', 'development' and 'growth' led to a dismantling of the community produced, and consequently, of visions of 'youth' beyond individualistic and 'empowered' subjectivities. The paper attempts to bring together literatures on gentrification and on youth movement activism and explore their entanglement through the lens of commoning and uncommoning. It further aims to reflect of how such processes influence the already fragile ecology of youth on a worldwide scale, given that gentrification processes have been recognized as a global form of urban management. Such processes assumingly alleviate Anthropocene effects through, among other, sustainable engineering projects while, however, exacerbating inequalities and threatening visions of alternative futures that activist youth communities embrace.