Cover not available

Article In: Linguistic Landscape: Online-First Articles

Commons as utopian practices

Performative, prefigurative landscapes in La Ingobernable

ORCiD logo with link | Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
ORCiD logo with link | Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
Abstract
This article explores the concept of the commons as a utopian practice, drawing on Graeber’s ‘living utopianism’ and Harvey’s ‘dialectical utopianism.’ It focuses on the urban commons La Ingobernabl’, a social centre located in a building, under threat of privatisation, occupied in Madrid between 2017 and 2019. The article examines how the project became a symbol of the conflict between neoliberal policies and movements demanding the right to the city. Through the analysis of the assemblage of discursive, semiotic, spatial and organisational practices, the article shows how the collective delimited, reterritorialised and governed it as a self-managed space. These practices are performative because they helped bring the commons into being, and prefigurative because they enacted in the present alternative social, political and economic relations organised around radical democracy, equality, care, and shared responsibility. This approach opens a fruitful path for the analysis of performative and prefigurative politics and practices.
Resumen
Este artículo explora el concepto de los bienes comunes como práctica utópica, basándose en el « utopismo vivo » de Graeber y el « utopismo dialéctico » de Harvey. Se centra en un común urbano « La Ingobernable », un centro social ubicado en un edificio amenazado de privatización que fue ocupado en Madrid entre 2017 y 2019. El artículo examina cómo el proyecto se convirtió en símbolo del conflicto entre las políticas neoliberales y los movimientos que reclaman el derecho a la ciudad. A través del análisis del entramado de prácticas discursivas, semióticas, espaciales y organizativas, el artículo muestra cómo el colectivo delimitó, reterritorializó y gestionó este espacio autogestionado. Estas prácticas fueron performativas porque contribuyeron a realizar los comunes y a conferirles entidad de realidad social, y prefigurativas porque pusieron en práctica, en el presente, relaciones sociales, políticas y económicas alternativas, organizadas en torno a la democracia radical, la igualdad, el cuidado y la responsabilidad compartida. Este enfoque abre una vía fructífera para el análisis de las políticas y prácticas performativas y prefigurativas.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.From commoning to utopian practices
  • 3.Understanding discursive and spatial transformation processes: Performativity and prefiguration
  • 4.Case study: La Ingobernable
  • 5.Methodological and analytical approach
  • 6.Performativity and prefiguration in space and discourse
    • 6.1Performativity
      • 6.1.1Naming to perform: Appropriation and resignification of space
      • 6.1.2Semiotic performativity: Symbols, logos and colour choice
      • 6.1.3Defining the commons: Assertive and temporal performativities
      • 6.1.4Performing the commoners: Linguistic Landscape and political subjectivation
    • 6.2Prefiguration and self-management: Enacting another possible social order
  • 7.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Note
  • Author queries
  • References
References (66)
References
Abdelhay, Ashraf, Sinfree Makoni, & Cristine Severo (Eds.). (2026). Sociolinguistics of Protesting (Vols. 1–21). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Austin, John L. (1962). How to do things with words. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bauwens, Michel & Yurek Onzia (2017). Commons transition plan for the city of Ghent. City of Ghent, retrieved on 30 October 2025, from [URL]
Bellisario, Antonio & Leslie Prock (2020). Arte ConTexto: Leftist Political Murals in Chile, 1960s to 1990s. Latin American and Latinx Visual Culture, 2(3), 29–52. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bianchi, Iolanda & Bertie Russell (Eds.). (2026). Radical Municipalism: The Politics of the Common and the Democratisation of Public Services. Bristol: Bristol University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Boggs, Carl (1977). Marxism, prefigurative communism, and the problem of workers’ control. Radical America, 11(6), 99–122. [URL]
Bollier, David (2002). Silent theft: The private plunder of our common wealth. New York: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2014). Think like a commoner: A short introduction to the life of the commons. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bollier, David & Silke Helfrich (Eds.). (2015). Patterns of commoning. The Commons Strategies Group and Off the Common Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Breines, Wini (1989). Community and organization in the New Left, 1962–1968: The great refusal. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Butler, Judith (1990). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1997). Excitable speech: A politics of the performative. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2015). Notes toward a performative theory of assembly. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cárdenas-Neira, Camila & Carolina Pérez-Arredondo (2021). Prácticas discursivas insurgentes y ocupación de espacios urbanos: análisis de los paisajes semióticos creados en dos ciudades de Chile durante la revuelta social (2019–2020). Bulletin of Spanish Studies, 98(7), 1165–1190. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Castells, Manuel (2015). Networks of outrage and hope: Social movements in the Internet age (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Centro Social La Ingobernable (2019). #Indesalojables La Ingobernable entra en alerta roja por amenaza de desalojo, retrieved on 10 July 2026, from [URL]
Ciriacy-Wantrup, Siegfried V. & Richard C. Bishop (1975). ‘Common property’ as a concept in natural resources policy. Natural Resources Journal, 15(4), 713–727. [URL]
Comisión de Cierre de La Ingobernable (2024). Fuimos Ingobernables: El legado textual del Centro Social La Ingobernable (Madrid 2017–2023). Madrid: Trucco.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dardot, Pierre & Christian Laval (2009). La nouvelle raison du monde. Essai sur la société néolibérale. Paris: La Découverte.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2019). Common: On revolution in the 21st century. New York: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dawney, Leila, Samuel Kirwan & Julian Brigstocke (2016). Introduction: The promise of the commons. In Samuel Kirwan, Leila Dawney, and Julian Brigstocke (Eds.). Space, power and the commons (pp. 1–28). London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
De Angelis, Massimo (2013). Crisis and the commons today. In Shannon Brincat (Ed.), Communism in the 21st century, Vol. 3 (pp. 1–26). Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger. [URL]
Deleuze, Gilles & Félix Guattari (1980). Mille plateaux. Paris: Les Éditions de minuit.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Derrida, Jacques (1988). Limited Inc. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fairclough, Norman (1992). Discourse and Social Change. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Federici, Silvia (2011). Feminism and the politics of the commons in an era of primitive accumulation. The Commoner, 151, 1–22. [URL]
(2018). Re-enchanting the world: Feminism and the politics of the commons. Ithaca, NY: PM Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Graeber, David (2009). Direct action: An ethnography. Oakland, CA: AK Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gramsci, Antonio (1994). Unions and Councils (V. Cox, Trans.). In Richard Bellamy (Ed.), Gramsci: Pre-Prison Writings (pp. 115–120). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, (Original work published in L ’Ordine Nuovo, October 11, 1919)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Harvey, David (2000). Spaces of hope. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2011). The future of the commons. Radical History Review, 1091, 101–107. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2012). Rebel cities: From the right to the city to the urban revolution. London: Verso.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hardt, Michael & Antonio Negri (2009). Commonwealth. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kitis, E. Dimitris & Tommaso M. Milani (2015). The performativity of the body: Turbulent spaces in Greece. Linguistic Landscape, 1(3), 268–290. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kress, Gunther & Theo van Leeuwen (2002). Colour as a Semiotic Mode: Notes for a Grammar of Colour. Visual Communication, 1(3), 343–368. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Krifka, Manfred (2024). A framework for performative and assertive updates. Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung, 281, 490–508. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Laurence, Jean-Christophe & Léa Carrier (2025). La rébellion « Gen Z » souffle sur le monde (Dossier, 3 articles). La Presse, 16 November 2025, retrieved on 2 May 2026. [URL]
Lefebvre, Henri (1968). Le droit à la ville. Paris: Éditions Anthropos.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1991). The production of space. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Levitas, Ruth (2013). Utopia as method: The imaginary reconstitution of society. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Linebaugh, Peter (2008). The Magna Carta manifesto: Liberties and commons for all. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Maeckelbergh, Marianne (2011). Doing is believing: Prefiguration as strategic practice in the alterglobalization movement. Social Movement Studies, 10(1), 1–20. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Martí i Puig, Salvador (2022). El muralismo zapatista: Una revuelta estética. Latin American Research Review, 57(1), 19–41. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Martín Rojo, Luisa (2001). New Developments in Discourse Analysis: Discourse as Social Practice. Folia Linguistica, 35(1–2), 41–78. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2026). Landscapes of protest movements: Spaces and discourses that prefigure and perform other possible worlds. In A. Abdelhay, S. Makoni, & C. Severo (Eds.), Sociolinguistics of protesting. Volume 1: Embodied histories, imagined worlds, emplaced resistance (pp. 15–36). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Marx, Karl (1976 [1867]). Capital: A critique of political economy, Volume I (Ben Fowkes, Trans.). London: Penguin Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Massey, Jonathan & Brett Snyder (2012). Occupying Wall Street: Places and spaces of political action. Places Journal, retrieved on 11 July 2026, from Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Neeson, Jeanette Marianne (1993). Commoners: Common right, enclosure and social change in England, 1700–1820. New York: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ostrom, Elinor (1990). Governing the commons: The evolution of institutions for collective action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ouviña, Hernán & Henry Renna (2022). Municipalismo y comunalismo. Utopías reales desde el poder local para enfrentar la crisis. Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires: Muchos Mundos Ediciones.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Piketty, Thomas (2014). Capital in the twenty-first century (Arthur Goldhammer, Trans.). Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Polanyi, Karl (2001 [1944]). The great transformation: The political and economic origins of our time. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Raekstad, Paul & Sofa Saio Gradin (2020). Prefigurative Politics: Building Tomorrow Today. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rancière, Jacques (2010). Dissensus: On politics and aesthetics. London: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sauvage, Grégoire (2026). Népal, Bangladesh, Maroc, Madagascar… quel héritage pour les manifestations de la Gen Z? France 241, 2 April 2026, retrieved on May 2, 2026, from [URL]
Sawer, Marian (2007). Wearing your Politics on your Sleeve: The Role of Political Colours in Social Movements. Social Movement Studies, 6(1), 39–56. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Servimedia (2026, April 15). Avanzan las obras de la antigua ‘Ingobernable’ para convertirla en un espacio cultural y un centro de salud. Servimedia, 15 April 2026, retrieved on 14 July 2026, from [URL]
Stavrides, Stavros (2016). Common space: The city as commons. London: Zed Books. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thompson, Edward P. (1968). The making of the English working class. London: Penguin Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van de Sande, Mathijs (2013). The prefigurative politics of Tahrir Square: An alternative perspective on the 2011 revolutions. Res Publica, 191, 223–239. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Varo, Anaïs, David Hamou, Ana Méndez de Andés, Edurne Bagué & Marco Aparicio Wilhelmi (2025). Commoning urban infrastructures: Lessons from energy, water and housing commons in Barcelona. Journal of Urban Affairs, 47(2), 566–585. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wodak, Ruth and Michael Meyer (Eds.). (2016). Methods of Critical Discourse Studies. 3rd ed. London: SAGE. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue