French municipalism(s): From roundabouts to the commune of communes
This piece is an Interview with Camille, spokesperson for the Citizens’ Assembly of Commercy. This platform is an example what democracy can look like when it is not headed by an elite, a demonstration of how self-determined education among the people is capable of bringing…
The growing global movement to end outdoor advertising
The anti-advertising movement Résistance à l’Agression Publicitaire (Resistance to Advertising Aggression, or RAP) groups are across France, up from five in 2016. They work autonomously with tactics including pressuring politicians like the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, who paused plans for new digital advertising boards…
Grenoble, France: Citizen participation in water utility delivers low tariffs for its poorest residents
Elected officials and environmental activists mobilised in Grenoble in the 1980s and 1990s to prove that corruption was involved in many deals, and set up an alternative, municipal entity to take back and run the water utility. Remunicipalisation took place in 2001, and opened the…