U!REKA Lab: Urban Commons as a Pedagogical Space of Transformation in the U!REKA European University Alliance

European higher education alliances are commonly treated as administrative instruments, yet their pedagogical and cultural dimensions remain underexamined. This article presents the U!REKA Lab: Urban Commons as a transformative educational space within the U!REKA European University. Drawing on theories of experiential and project-based learning (Dewey, 1938), world-centred learning (Biesta, 2022), situated participation (Lave & Wenger, 1991), critical transformative learning (Mezirow, 2000), commons governance (Ostrom, 1990; Bollier & Helfrich, 2019), the analysis shows how students learn in the U!REKA Lab through embodied engagement, co-creation, governance practices and intercultural comparison. Examples from the U!REKA cities Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Ghent, Helsinki, and Ostrava, illustrate how the U!REKA Lab enacts participatory and engaged research, explores timely pedagogical approaches, and aims to foster commons thinking, while simultaneously modelling new forms of international cooperation.