From conflicts to commoning

A ubiquitous feature of cities in East Asia, urban alleyways function often as a semi-public or semi-private space. In Taipei, alleyways (shang-nong, 巷弄) have recently become a contested space as excessive commercial activities are met by opposition from local residents. One such conflict occurred a few years ago in one of Taipei’s most popular night markets – the Shida Night Market (師大夜市). To ameliorate the situation, a team of ‘community workers’ began to organize a series of spatial and social experiments in the alleyways to create opportunities for social interactions. This chapter examines the process by which these experiments took place and reflects upon the implications of these outcomes for the future of alleyways in East Asia.