Solidarity cities in Europe
Across Europe, urban solidarity movements are gaining momentum. Under the label of ‘Welcoming Cities’, ‘Cities of Refuge’ or ‘Solidarity Cities’, civil society groups, local politicians and city administrations are defying the growing restrictions of border regimes and migration policies on the European and national level….
The city as the new political centre
A radical change is taking place. Cities around Europe – through platforms, movements and international networks – are creating paths for citizens to participate in and influence politics directly. Joan Subirats, one of the founders of Barcelona’s municipalist platform Barcelona en Comú, discusses how cities…
This land is whose land?
Over the past few generations, gentrification has emerged as a broadly familiar frame for understanding the explosive changes that are disfiguring cities across the planet. However, the dominant languages being invoked to theorize gentrification today fall short: they are necessary but not sufficient. Understanding urban…
Urban sanctuary: The promise of solidarity cities
Activists in Berlin have been trying to adopt the concept of Sanctuary City to try to improve urban living conditions while simultaneously work on the further development of the political concept itself. Learning from other self proclaimed cities of change, rebel cities or solidarity cities …
Solidarity cities
With nationalist parties resurgent throughout Europe, more and more European nationals are vesting their political hopes in national governments. But for those new migrants without increasingly-coveted EU citizenship, the institutions most likely to come to their aid are not nation states, but local and city…