Custodianship in the Urban Commons

BARI has worked closely with the Mayor’s Office of New urban Mechanics and the 311 system examine how Bostonians contribute to the maintenance of the public spaces and infrastructure of neighborhoods—that is, custodianship in the urban commons. The project uses the requests for non-government service received by the 311 system to examine when and where people report such issues, and their motivations for doing so. This project has demonstrated that custodianship is largely hyperlocal, anchored by an individual’s home, and driven by territoriality, or our innate tendency to claim and identify with spaces and objects. These insights have led to a number of implications for the design and implementation of 311 systems.