ABSTRACT
We have confronted what we share, the conditions that shape our risk exposure largely accidentally. In other words, we have accidentally encountered the commons by colliding with responsibility and receiving impact. From Accidental Commons to Collectives for Redistribution, explore alternatives to think and address climate risk and its distribution. It aims to work collectively with the multiple actors involved in managing and being affected by climate risk. The two projects—or case studies discussed, embrace ecology and economy together as a framework to revisit collective engagement. One project is associated with the Resilient By Design Challenge in the San Francisco Bay Area. It explores the conditions that define property through a climate risk perspective. The second project, Bartertown, proposes games specifically designed to engage with collective decision-making. The project was tested in an Oakland-based neighborhood where multiple actors experienced these tools for political deliberation or navigating the commons and redistribution. The text discusses the scope and challenges—including the paradoxes of individual land ownership in a context of climate risk and offers thoughts for developing site-specific considerations for collective redistribution.
