What is “new municipalism”, and can it really combat austerity?
New municipalism uses local government procurement as a powerful tool for reshaping local economies. The municipalist approach is seen by many as more affordable, sustainable and socially beneficial. Photo: Lewis Burrows
The EU’s obstacle course for municipalism
Progressive municipalist city governments in Europe have introduced important policies to promote citizen participation, public ownership of services, expanded affordable housing, and many more. But their radical democratic programmes face obstacles from both EU and national neoliberal legislation. Photo: Pixabay
Cool people’s movements
As the effects of climate change start to become more obvious year after year, we are faced with a conundrum. Today, progressives need to address both climate change and its effects, like heat waves and flooding. What we need is a political movement that links…
How woke is the left?
Is the left today “woke,” i.e. is it self-consciously learning from the limits of the path it has been on to design a new systemic architecture based on alternative, networked institutions to challenge the status quo? New institutions are needed because in the past farms,…
Seattle flirts with ‘municipal socialism’
The Seattle City Hall is deploying a set of “municipalist socialist” actions aimed at reversing the negative trends of the new urban job market and limiting private interests, therefore improving the lives of its inhabitants. An in other progressive cities, the municipal level has become…
The revolution will be ecologised: social change in the 21st century
The climate crisis today demands nothing less than a worldwide social and political transformation. Piecemeal reforms, technocratic schemes, and state-driven ‘climate resilience’ have proven not only ineffective at stymying the effects of climate change, but also utterly incapable of combating its underlying cause: a capitalist…
‘Fearless’ Amsterdam government: digital city goes social
Cyber security, data sovereignty, digital participation and digital services, complex topics that cannot be solved overnight. But the new government of Amsterdam is committed to dealing with these challenges. In contrast to the idea of the smart city, the aim is to develop new policies…
An atlas of real utopias?
In 2017, the Transnational Institute launched Transformative Cities, an opportunity for progressive local governments, municipalist coalitions, social movements and civil society organizations to popularize and share their experiences of building solutions to our planet’s systemic economic, social, political and ecological crises. The Atlas of Utopia,…
Libertarian municipalism: networked cities as resilient platforms for post-capitalist transition
The old model of secure livelihood through wages is collapsing at the same time that new technology is destroying the material basis for dependence on corporations and the state. This is to a large extent a transition to a post-capitalist society centered on the commons….