Conventional political thought and practice continue to be stifled by a dilemma of choosing between the ideal imaginaries of State and/or Market solutions. Widely presupposed as the only valid possibilities in both theory and practice, this stale dilemma covers up a real multitude of actually existing alternative approaches to governance practiced in civil society. State/Market approaches are identical in the way that they construct a ‘spectator’ role for communities, who are left to choose between their preferred set of rules and norms developed elsewhere. The concept of commoning governance offers an opportunity to break free of this stalemate. It creates a new role for citizens and their communities as ‘sparring partners’; who although they operate within the limits of current State/Market institutions, create new norms and rules against and beyond them. In the paper, we first expand on our understanding of commoning governance: re-designing governance arrangements to serve the common good. That is here understood in terms of (radical) democracy, solidarity and sustainable ecological relationships. Second, we illustrate how commoning efforts on the ground contribute to the reclaiming of the democratic imaginary as a political arena by zooming in to a case study of the three cities involved in civic-led network of German Food Policy Councils. Finally, we reflect on the empirical barriers that communities of commoning endure, and call on policymakers, planners and scholars to interrogate their own normative understandings of citizenship and democracy, and begin to recognize theoretical and latent possibilities by enabling commoning with new or re-designed institutions of governance.

传统的政治思想和实践继续因在理想的国家和/或市场解决方案之间进行选择而陷入困境。这种陈旧的困境被广泛假定为理论和实践中唯一有效的可能性，它掩盖了公民社会中实际存在的大量实际存在的替代治理方法。国家/市场方法在为社区构建“旁观者”角色的方式上是相同的，让社区在他们喜欢的一套规则和其他地方制定的规范之间做出选择。共同治理的概念提供了打破这种僵局的机会。它为公民及其社区创造了作为“陪练伙伴”的新角色；尽管他们在当前国家/市场机构的范围内运作，制定新的规范和规则来反对和超越它们。在本文中，我们首先扩展了我们对共同治理的理解：重新设计治理安排以服务于共同利益。这在这里可以理解为（激进的）民主、团结和可持续的生态关系。其次，我们通过对参与公民主导的德国食品政策委员会网络的三个城市的案例研究，说明实地的共同努力如何有助于将民主想象重新作为政治舞台。最后，我们反思共同社区所承受的经验障碍，并呼吁政策制定者、规划者和学者质疑他们自己对公民身份和民主的规范理解，