Commoning the gardens by the Bloc. Informal gardening practices in the collective housing districts of a post-socialist city

Abstract

This article investigates the persistence of gardening by the bloc, an informal urban gardening practice in the green spaces of collective housing districts of post-socialist Bucharest. Although often reduced in public discourse to a leftover of socialist survival strategies, this research reconsiders it as an everyday social interaction that supports communities amid urban transformations. Following Tsing and De Angelis, the article views gardening by the bloc as a local form of ‘latent commons’, reflecting broader socio-political shifts in a post-socialist city. Based on qualitative research, it documents how residents use, adapt and manage green spaces, along with their relations with institutional actors, revealing how they engage these areas under increasingly neoliberal governance. The study argues that the overlap between a market-oriented regulatory project, inherited socialist structures, and collective spatial practices shaped a distinct way of living together. As an emerging form of urban commons, gardening by the bloc can maintain a shared practice of communal life against an increasingly individualized society, laying the groundwork for bottom-up regeneration of housing estates across diverse social and political contexts. However, through the lens of gardening, the article also reveals the contradictions inherent to latent commons, drawing attention to their internal tensions and ambiguities.