The aspirations to autonomy, independence, and equality that had so effectively boosted the discourse of modern dominium were never realized. The rationalization and expansion of the economy generated enormous wealth inequalities between the propertied classes and the large class of propertyless wage laborers. The latter experienced oppression rather than autonomy, material dependence rather than the independence, and exclusion instead of equality. The “social question” prompted social reformers of all stripes to interrogate the role of property law (in the emergent industrial world. The new political and intellectual climate ushered in by the “social question” transformed the ideological discourse about property, the concerns of the jurists, and, to an extent, the doctrines of law of property. Alternative conceptualizations of property focused on social relations, redistribution and cooperation, started appearing in the writings of philosophers, economists and pamphleteers. And a new generation of jurists, interested in functionalist and consequence-based approach to property, gained power in law faculties around Europe, Latin America and beyond.

Drawing on Sheila Foster and Christian Iaione’s generative work, The City as a Commons, this chapter applies commons theory to public housing in the United States, which, despite decades of disinvestment and mismanagement, remains a significant community asset serving affordable housing needs. Using New York City’s embattled Housing Authority (NYCHA), the nation’s largest public housing agency, as a case study, the chapter argues that public housing, though not a classic common-pool resource, serves a broad swath of vulnerable urban residents and can be reimagined under an urban commons framework. Doing so ensures that, in a time of transitioning uses of public housing assets, residents have meaningful input concerning disposition of space within public housing campuses.The democratizing implications of commons theory respond to NYCHA residents’ essential exclusion (despite requirements in federal law) from revenue-driven decisions increasing private developers’ control over NYCHA properties through long-term land leases and public-private partnerships. A commons analysis, grounded in residents’ urban knowledge, experience, and need, and informed by the social function of property theory, adds normative and theoretical heft to residents’ equitable stake in decisions concerning public housing’s increasingly threatened spaces.