This article analyses ChatGPT from the perspective of the philosophy of education. It explores ChatGPT’s implications for universities, focussing on the intertwined concepts of critical thinking, the crisis of higher education, and humanity. Does ChatGPT sound the death knell for critical thinking and, thus, exacerbate the oft-diagnosed ‘crisis in education’? And is ChatGPT really a convenient, but dangerous, tool to outsource humanity to machines?. In addressing these questions, the article’s two main arguments offer an alternative to both triumphalist and overly (...) pessimistic narratives: first, ChatGPT can lead to a revitalisation of critical thinking in higher education. However, it arrives at this conclusion not from the triumphalist viewpoint that celebrates ChatGPT’s (allegedly) limitless potential, but from the more sober perspective that ChatGPT combines remarkable strengths with considerable weaknesses and built-in limitations. Secondly, ChatGPT can prompt a return to the qualities that distinguish humans from calculating machines and (re)instate critical thinking as the pivotal virtue of higher education. The article arrives at this conclusion by rejecting the overly pessimistic concern with ‘outsourcing humanity’ and endorsing the idea that ChatGPT lays bare a ‘crisis in education’ that constitutes, simultaneously, a precious opportunity. Finally, the article stresses that this opportunity inevitably comes at a price. There will be winners and losers of the ChatGPT revolution and there is a danger that ChatGPT reintroduces elitism through the back door. One urgent task of the near future, therefore, will be to keep this danger in check. (shrink)

Is the concept of open society still relevant in the 21st century? Do the current social, moral, and political realities call for a drastic revision of this concept? Here fifteen essays address real-world contemporary challenges to open society from a variety of perspectives. What unites the individual authors and chapters is an interest in open society's continuing usefulness and relevance to address current problems. And what distinguishes them is a rich variety of geographical and cultural backgrounds, and a wide range (...) of academic disciplines and traditions.While focusing on probing the contemporary relevance of the concept, several chapters approach it historically. The book features a comprehensive introduction to the history and current 'uses' of the theory of open society. The authors link the concept to contemporary themes including education, Artificial Intelligence, cognitive science, African cosmology, colonialism, and feminism. The diversity of viewpoints in the analysis reflects a commitment to plurality that is at the heart of this book and of the idea of open society itself. (shrink)

This article offers a novel interpretation of Karl Popper’s influential yet controversial book, The Open Society and Its Enemies (1945). Popper, it argues, sheds light on a pivotal social and political question: How can we value genuine human plurality without succumbing to the illusion that enmity can be removed from the socio-political realm? What we find in Popper, I argue, is an “anti-utopian agonism,” that is, his conception of an open society harbors significant agonistic elements—a commitment to human plurality, an (...) endorsement of (some) social and political struggles, and an acute awareness of the tragic dimensions of political life. Simultaneously, Popper’s distinctive anti-utopianism makes an important contribution to agonistic theory on two fronts. First, his concept of “the strain of civilization” reveals a deeper notion of tragedy, which gives him the edge over the rather shallow notion of tragedy we find in the agonistic tradition. Secondly, he develops a tripartite notion of enmity, which is theoretically interesting and practically relevant. The aim of this article is not only to contribute to the scholarship on Popper and agonism but, first and foremost, to demonstrate how The Open Society still matters as an inspiring work that illuminates the practically relevant question of how to value diversity without illusions. (shrink)

This article addresses two questions: How should a ‘practical political theory’ approach the ideological struggle between advocates of critical social justice and defenders of free speech? And, what does this conflict tell us about the deficits of one particular tradition of practical political theory — namely, agonistic democracy? The paper’s purpose, then, is to illuminate a concrete contemporary phenomenon through the lens of agonistic theory and, conversely, to use this struggle as an impetus to carve out and address weaknesses in (...) the theory of agonism.I defend an ‘agonistic approach’ to the struggle against two alternatives — first, the claim that there is, conceptually, no ‘real’ conflict between social justice and free speech, and second, the strategy to ‘take sides’ in the conflict. By taking seriously the agonistic core idea that struggle and conflict can be valuable and productive expressions of plurality and inclusivity, I argue that this struggle should be approached as an agonistic conflict — as the welcome and important expression of a diversity of views on central social, moral and political questions.I also show, however, how retaining the focus on the real-life struggle between advocates of critical social justice and free-speech sheds light on the inconsistencies of much agonistic thought. In particular, I will criticize those agonists who limit their conception of the ‘agon’ to respectful struggles, and those who see the agon merely as a tool of emancipation for oppressed groups. Against these visions of agonism, I develop an anti-perfectionist, yet radical, account of agonism with the potential to serve as a guide in complex social and political conflicts. (shrink)

The present article discusses the “peace versus justice” dilemma in international criminal justice through the lenses of the respective legal theories of Judith Shklar and Hannah Arendt—two thinkers who have recently been described as theorists of international criminal law. The article claims that in interventions carried out by the International Criminal Court, there is an ever-present potentiality for the “peace versus justice” dilemma to occur. Unfortunately, there is no abstract solution to this problem, insofar as ICC interventions will in some (...) cases be conducive while in others, they will be deleterious to peace. If a tension between peace and justice arises in a particular case, the article asserts, the former must be prioritised over the latter. Such a prioritisation, however, requires a vision of the ICC as a flexible actor of world politics which is situated at the intersection of law, ethics and politics, rather than a strictly legalistic view of the court. Ultimately, then, the present article seeks to probe whether the legal and political theories of Shklar and Arendt—in isolation, but ultimately also in combination—support such a flexible vision of the ICC. (shrink)

This essay engages critically with Adrian Pabst’s ‘Liberal World Order and Its Critics’, Christian Reus-Smit’s ‘On Cultural Diversity’, and Hal Brands’ and Charles Edel’s ‘The Lessons of Tragedy’. What holds these three (very different) books together is that they revolve around the theme of ‘the crisis of liberal world order’. In this essay, I do not wish to dispute the claim that the liberal world order is in crisis – indeed, I accept this common starting-off point of the four authors (...) as a fact. What distinguishes my take on the ‘crisis of liberal world’ order from the books under review, however, is that I develop an alternative angle on the very idea of ‘crisis’: By understanding crisis as an incitement to judgement, deliberation and, ultimately, political action, I excavate the constructive potential of crisis; and, through the critical engagement with the three books under review, I seek to lay bare the intimate bond that connects ‘crisis’, ‘human diversity’, and ‘tragedy’, and to revive the constructive potential of these themes as ‘opportunities not to be wasted’. (shrink)

Recent International Relations scholarship has identified ‘societal multiplicity’ as the ontological concept that gives IR its identity as an academic discipline. My article, by contrast, addresses the question: What are the consequences, that is, the positive potential and the necessary costs, of understanding multiplicity as a moral-political value in world politics? The question is important because, in contrast to the focus on multiplicity as the ontology of IR, it allows us to develop a more radically democratic idea of multiplicity as (...) a value in world politics. To address this question, I will bring Rosenberg’s conception of societal multiplicity into conversation with the radically democratic idea of Tully’s ‘strange multiplicity’ and draw out the consequences of such a normative turn. My argument is that while Rosenberg does not frame multiplicity as a value, Tully’s normative understanding of the concept harbours enormous potential to transform oppressive and dominating practices in world politics. However, I will also show that Tully’s general rejection of all forms of domination comes at a price that must not be underestimated. It is of crucial importance to get a clear picture of these consequences as we must decide whether or not this price is, ultimately, worth paying. (shrink)

For the traditional legalistic discourse on the International Criminal Court, “politics” is a bête noire that compromises the independence of the Court and thus needs to be avoided and overcome. In response to this legalistic approach, a burgeoning body of literature insists that the Court does not exist and operate “beyond politics”, arguing that the ICC is an institution where law and politics are intimately connected. The present article seeks to contribute to this “non-traditional” literature by addressing two of its (...) fundamental weaknesses: First, writers of the “non-traditional camp” often present a rather limited view of “politics”; in particular, they have shied away from taking the radical step of portraying and analysing the ICC as a “political actor”. This undermines both its critical and constructive potential. Secondly, these commentators offer a simplistic explanation as to why “traditionalists” treat politics as the ICC’s bête noire: Traditionalists, they claim, are “legalists” with scant interest in and understanding of politics. By focusing on the ICC’s nature as a political actor, this article does not only paint a more nuanced picture of the ICC but also demonstrates the constructive potential of this understanding of the ICC to shed light on the so-called “peace versus justice dilemma”. And secondly, it demonstrates that precisely because the ICC is and ought to be a prudent political actor, it must officially disavow politics. The “noble lie” of disavowing politics, therefore, is a prudential strategy to avoid dangerous moral and political consequences and, ultimately, to secure the continued existence of the ICC itself. (shrink)

In "The Quest for Consciousness," Caltech neuroscientist Christof Koch explores the biological basis of consciousness.

Recently, the increasing interest in responsible leadership (RL) has produced a research field rich in theoretical and conceptual potential, with diverse research foci, theoretical foundations, and methodological approaches. While these developments have demarcated the field from other leadership-oriented disciplines, they have equally courted fragmentation and ambiguity in terms of the field’s positioning within the greater body of leadership studies. To map the theoretical, methodological, and empirical state of the art of the RL field, we outline recent developments and delineate important (...) research gaps and directions for future theory development and empirical research. We emphasize the transition of RL research from micro-level perspectives with normative roots to research spanning multiple levels of analysis, vis-à-vis both antecedents and outcomes. We discuss the implications of our mapping, highlighting the necessity of not only conceptualizing RL across multiple levels of analysis, but also to actively focus on interactions among RL antecedents and outcomes across these levels. Through these, we aim to contribute to the field by strengthening its conceptual foundations and anchoring it more clearly within leadership studies overall. (shrink)

What drives Chinese MNEs’ global CSR integration and local CSR responsiveness? Drawing on institutional theory, we argue that both antecedents reflecting globally isomorphic patterns of adaptation and antecedents mirroring the distinct characteristics of China’s institutional context are relevant. We support our argument using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis on a sample of 29 of China’s globally most influential companies. We find that state influence and global CSR associations affect global CSR integration, whereas presence in the West and internationalization through mergers and (...) acquisitions predict local CSR responsiveness. Our study thus suggests that home-country characteristics are an important co-determinant of the CSR approaches of emerging-market MNEs. We further find that multicultural experience in top management teams is associated with both global CSR integration and local CSR responsiveness, supporting notions of transnational CSR. (shrink)

Starting from a reconstruction of the origins of the concept of “modernity” in the late Nineteenth century and of the different interpretations of it in the context of the German social sciences, the essay articulates its radical ambivalences. After establishing that modernity cannot be measured on a scale of progress, neither can it be identified with a specific value, Christof Dipper suggests that there are many conceptions of modernity as there are societies, and that these are not necessarily following (...) a common path. The concept of modernity, that includes anti-modernity as well, embraces therefore actors, representations, and constellations, offering an overall reading of history. (shrink)

We examine the moderating role of the situational and organizational contexts in determining unethical managerial behavior, applying the case-survey methodology. On the basis of a holistic, multiple-antecedent perspective, we hypothesize that two key constructs, moral intensity and situational strength, help explain contextual moderating effects on relationships between managers’ individual characteristics and unethical behavior. Based on a quantitative analysis of 52 case studies describing occurrences of real-life unethical conduct, we find empirical support for the hypothesized contextual moderating effects of moral intensity (...) and situational strength. By examining these complex contextual moderators, we aim to contribute to organizational ethics research as we shed light on the critical role that context may play in influencing unethical managerial behavior. (shrink)

ZusammenfassungWährend die juristische und medizinethische Rechtfertigung des Verzichts auf Wiederbelebung in Deutschland akademisch hinreichend geklärt ist, zeigen sich doch erhebliche Unterschiede und zahlreiche Probleme bei der praktischen Umsetzung in der Klinik. Innerhalb des interdisziplinären Behandlungsteams gehören Kommunikationsdefizite und die Intransparenz der ethischen Entscheidungsprozesse zu den häufigsten Schwierigkeiten, die in der Medizinischen Klinik für Nephrologie und Hypertensiologie am Klinikum Nürnberg mit der Implementierung einer hausinternen Leitlinie, der Anordnung zum Verzicht auf Wiederbelebung, behoben werden sollten.Die Evaluationsstudie, die 118 VaW-Anordnungen bei 4718 Behandlungsfällen (...) im Zeitraum von November 2004 bis Juli 2005 einschloss, verfolgte einen dualen Forschungsansatz. Eine quantitative Dokumentationsanalyse aller VaW-Protokolle wurde mit der leitfadengestützten Befragung von 16 Ärzten und Pflegekräften kombiniert.Teambesprechungen waren in 62,4 %, Entscheidungsgründe in 74,6 % aller VaW-Protokolle dokumentiert. Die Interviews ergaben eine positive, aber berufsgruppendifferente Bewertung der Kommunikation, wobei die Pflegenden kritischer eingestellt waren als ihre medizinischen Kollegen. Die VaW-Dokumentation bewirkte nach Auffassung aller Befragten eine hohe Nachvollziehbarkeit und Transparenz. Die VaW-Anordnung wurde darüber hinaus als gut anwendbar und praxistauglich betrachtet. Nahezu alle Befragten sprachen sich für eine Beibehaltung des VaWVerfahrens in der Klinik aus.Die Implementierung der VaW-Anordnung als hausinterne Leitlinie und Dokumentationsstandard hat zu einer Förderung des interdisziplinären Dialogs und zu einer erheblichen Verbesserung der Transparenz der ethischen Entscheidungsprozesse im Rahmen des Verzichts auf Wiederbelebung geführt. Hilfreich und praxistauglich erfreut sich die VaW-Anordnung einer hohen Akzeptanz bei Pflegenden und Medizinern und wird seit drei Jahren in der Nephrologie am Klinikum Nürnberg konsequent angewendet. (shrink)

ZusammenfassungWährend die juristische und medizinethische Rechtfertigung des Verzichts auf Wiederbelebung in Deutschland akademisch hinreichend geklärt ist, zeigen sich doch erhebliche Unterschiede und zahlreiche Probleme bei der praktischen Umsetzung in der Klinik. Innerhalb des interdisziplinären Behandlungsteams gehören Kommunikationsdefizite und die Intransparenz der ethischen Entscheidungsprozesse zu den häufigsten Schwierigkeiten, die in der Medizinischen Klinik für Nephrologie und Hypertensiologie am Klinikum Nürnberg mit der Implementierung einer hausinternen Leitlinie, der Anordnung zum Verzicht auf Wiederbelebung, behoben werden sollten.Die Evaluationsstudie, die 118 VaW-Anordnungen bei 4718 Behandlungsfällen (...) im Zeitraum von November 2004 bis Juli 2005 einschloss, verfolgte einen dualen Forschungsansatz. Eine quantitative Dokumentationsanalyse aller VaW-Protokolle wurde mit der leitfadengestützten Befragung von 16 Ärzten und Pflegekräften kombiniert.Teambesprechungen waren in 62,4 %, Entscheidungsgründe in 74,6 % aller VaW-Protokolle dokumentiert. Die Interviews ergaben eine positive, aber berufsgruppendifferente Bewertung der Kommunikation, wobei die Pflegenden kritischer eingestellt waren als ihre medizinischen Kollegen. Die VaW-Dokumentation bewirkte nach Auffassung aller Befragten eine hohe Nachvollziehbarkeit und Transparenz. Die VaW-Anordnung wurde darüber hinaus als gut anwendbar und praxistauglich betrachtet. Nahezu alle Befragten sprachen sich für eine Beibehaltung des VaWVerfahrens in der Klinik aus.Die Implementierung der VaW-Anordnung als hausinterne Leitlinie und Dokumentationsstandard hat zu einer Förderung des interdisziplinären Dialogs und zu einer erheblichen Verbesserung der Transparenz der ethischen Entscheidungsprozesse im Rahmen des Verzichts auf Wiederbelebung geführt. Hilfreich und praxistauglich erfreut sich die VaW-Anordnung einer hohen Akzeptanz bei Pflegenden und Medizinern und wird seit drei Jahren in der Nephrologie am Klinikum Nürnberg konsequent angewendet. (shrink)

Many people all over the world are convinced that cloning human beings is unethical and should be outlawed through prohibitions in criminal law. In spite of this, debate flares up repeatedly whenever experiments with human embryonic cells are carried out somewhere in the world. This will continue to happen as long as the conviction that cloning human beings is unethical lacks a logical philosophical-ethical foundation, which is still the case1,2. In addition, a foundation that could be more permanent against the (...) background of different cultural traditions is particularly absent. The standard justification for the prohibition of human cloning is derived from the complex of arguments on the status of the embryo, the so-called ICP arguments. According to these arguments, from the time the egg cell is fertilized and onwards, the human embryo is and remains genetically identical (I) with the subsequent unique (individual) person and there is an unbroken continuous (C) development from the fertilized egg cell through birth to the death of every single person that is born. Above all, it is claimed that there is an irrevocable potential (P) for human individuality, which is why every embryo means human life, possibly even a living development not only into a person but as a person. All this leads to the embryos’ right to unique human existence or development. (shrink)

Numerous studies indicate that observing or knowing about another's action automatically activates the same motor representations that are active when we perform the other's action by ourselves. We investigated how affect influences this mirror mechanism. Based upon findings that positive affect encourages and negative affect impairs spreading activation, we hypothesised that positive affect should increase and negative affect decrease the automatic co-representation of other individuals' actions during jointly performed tasks. Recent research has shown that joint-action effects in a go/no-go variant (...) of the Simon task provide a good index for co-representing another's action. Participants performed such a Simon task together with another person after the induction of neutral, positive, or negative affect. Consistent with our predictions, the joint Simon-like effect was strongest after positive affect induction and absent after negative affect induction. These results represent the first evidence of affect-induced differences in the mirroring of another's action and suggest that affect influences one of our essential abilities for successful social interactions. (shrink)

Preface : consciousness redux -- What is consciousness? -- Who is conscious? -- Animal consciousness -- Consciousness and the rest -- Consciousness and the brain -- Tracking the footprints of consciousness -- Why we need a theory of consciousness -- Of wholes -- Tools to measure consciousness -- The uber-mind and pure consciousness -- Does consciousness have a function? -- Computationalism and experience -- Computers can't simulate experience -- Consciousness : here, there but not everywhere -- Coda : why this (...) matters -- References -- Notes. (shrink)

This book originated at a small and informal workshop held in December of 1992 in Idyllwild, a relatively secluded resort village situated amid forests in the ...

Der Band untersucht das durch die Begriffe Musik, Kultur und Gedächtnis abgesteckte Feld in einer zweifachen Bewegung: Zum einen wird Musik als eine wichtige soziokulturelle Ausdrucksform quer durch alle Kulturen gefasst, ihre Bestimmung und Funktion ändern sich mit den jeweiligen soziokulturellen Kontexten und Praxen. Jedes Musikstück steht in spezifischen kulturell entwickelten Traditionen und Formen, die von ihm aktualisiert werden. Musik wirkt als "gemeinschaftsbildende Macht" (Adorno), als Ausdrucksmittel individueller oder kollektiver Identität. Zum anderen ist den vielfältigen Formen von Musik die mehrfache (...) Verbindung von Musik und Zeit gemeinsam: Die jeweilige musikalische Darbietung oder Reproduktion ist ein zeitlicher Ablauf und als solcher gedächtnishaft organisiert. Die ästhetische Erfahrung von Musik ist konstitutiv auf Gedächtnisleistungen angewiesen und Musik selbst eine temporale Kunstform. Neben dieser elementaren Zeitlichkeit zeigen sich in der Musik aber viele weitere Aspekte subjektiver und sozialer Zeit: die Geschichtlichkeit der einzelnen Stücke bzw. Werke selbst, die soziokulturelle zeitliche Lagerung von Ordnungsprinzipien wie Gattungen, Kunstformen, Stilen etc., der Wandel von basalen Formen des Musikmachens (etwa unter dem Einfluss von Medientechnologien). Der Band enthält auch die deutsche Erstveröffentlichung eines Artikels von Maurice Halbwachs zu diesem Themenfeld. Der Inhalt: Theoretische Überlegungen, "Analytische Betrachtungen. Die Herausgeber: PD Dr. Christofer Jost lehrt und arbeitet am Zentrum für Populäre Kultur und Musik der Universität Freiburg. PD Dr. Gerd Sebald ist am Institut für Soziologie der Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg tätig. (shrink)

The principle of individuation for human persons is one of the points on which Edith Stein is critical of a Thomistic account. In my view, it is possible to show that Stein’s phenomenological perspective does not exclude a Thomistic position, but can be understood in a complementary manner. An investigation into Stein’s distinction between Quid and Quale in the human person has led me to this hypothesis. By Quid, Stein means the common human form with its faculties bearing an individual (...) openness to specific contents (Erschlossenheit) and an individual lifeforce (Lebenskraft). This individuality is the result not only of material dispositions and circumstances (Thomistic view), but even more basically of the Quale by which Stein means a fundamental quality of the being of each person. (shrink)

A fundamental property of emotional responses is a change in action tendencies that allow the individual to cope with the situation. Most basically, there are two types of behaviour one can switch to when responding emotionally: approach or withdrawal. The present study examined whether the ability to switch to approach or withdrawal depends on the type of behaviour shown before. Using familiar (Experiment 1) and unfamiliar (Experiment 2) neutral stimuli, we first show that switching from approach to withdrawal is generally (...) easier than vice versa. In Experiment 3, we demonstrate that this holds true even when participants respond to emotional stimuli that typically elicit strong approach or withdrawal tendencies. These results indicate that there is a fundamental asymmetry in the ability to switch from approach to withdrawal or vice versa. As shown in Experiment 3, this asymmetry may represent a serious confound in many previous studies examining the link between stimulus valence and associated action tendencies, suggesting that the link between positive stimuli and approach tendencies may be stronger, and the link between negative stimuli and withdrawal tendencies weaker, than previously believed. (shrink)

The first two sections of this article describe central developments in the areas of religion and family in Germany. These developments are interpreted as expressions of more general processes of social differentiation and modernization in the third section. The fourth section investigates how many and which children come into contact with church and religion today. It turns out that only a minority of children is introduced to religion. Especially less well-to-do children have little contact to the church. The fifth section (...) deals with the question if different types ofhouseholds differ according to their affiliation to the church. It is shown that church membership, the attendance of services and membership in religious groups in West-Germany are related to the familial character of households. (shrink)

Purpose The paper aims to investigate whether dissent—within hospices and palliative care units—can be observed with regard to typical characteristics of “good dying”, how statements about dying processes that are not perceived as good are expressed, and finally which ethically significant normative consequences arise from this. Method The study is conducted on the basis of a qualitative interview study in different groups of actors and the relationships of these groups are compared with each other. Results Notions of good and bad (...) dying are articulated—even dissented upon—not so much by the patients and their relatives themselves as by the professional actors. This is connected with the requirements of a practice, which evidently evokes a need for accountability, namely for communicative assurance. Conclusion An abstract designation of “good dying” is in danger of losing sight of the contextual characteristics of the practice associated with it, which can lead to situations that are problematic from an ethical viewpoint. (shrink)

Der Beitrag will der Frage nachgehen, ob innerhalb von Hospizen und Palliativstationen in Bezug auf typische Merkmale des „guten Sterbens“ jenseits von in der Literatur erhobenen Konsensen auch Dissense beobachtet werden können, wie Sterbeverläufe, die als nicht gut betrachtet werden, zu Wort kommen, und schließlich: welche ethisch beachtlichen normativen Konsequenzen sich daraus ergeben.Die Studie wird auf der Grundlage einer qualitativen Interviewstudie in der Befragung unterschiedlicher Akteursgruppen sowie im Vergleich dieser Gruppen durchgeführt.Artikuliert werden – auch dissentierende – Vorstellungen von einem guten (...) und einem schlechten Sterben, und zwar kaum von den Betroffenen und ihren Angehörigen selbst als vielmehr von den professionellen Akteuren. Die Ausprägung einer solchen Semantik hängt mit den Erfordernissen einer Praxis zusammen, die offenbar ein Rechenschaftsbedürfnis in Form von kommunikativer Vergewisserung evoziert.Eine abstrakte Bestimmung des „guten Sterbens“ steht in Gefahr, die kontextuellen Besonderheiten der damit verbundenen Praxis nicht mehr in den Blick zu bekommen, was zu in ethischer Hinsicht problematischen Situationen führen kann. (shrink)

Originally presented as the author's Habilitationsschrift--Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitèat, Munich.

Commons enjoy recognition as an alternative to the dichotomy of state and market. In contrast to liberal market theorists who frame the commons as resource-based, we build on alternative and critical conceptions that describe the commons as processual, social, and inherently relational. Our analysis adds to these accounts an articulation of the contemporary commons as “social infrastructure” in the urban spatial conditions where the social processes of commoning take place. We argue that the relational features of urban commons depend on (...) social interactions and cross-sector partnerships in physical places that promote social cohesion, suggesting that the urban commons fold together the spatial and social in hitherto undertheorized ways. To theorize this relationship, we articulate the idea of the relational urban commons as sites of social interaction and relationship building—social infrastructure. This conceptualization suggests that the commons can be governed indirectly by enabling access, participation, and partnerships across sectors, fostering mixed uses and the provision of maintenance and repair. As a result, the commons are both maintained by and conducive to place-based cross-sector partnerships, anchored in place in ways that transcend resources, issues, and ownership. (shrink)