The power of a transformative city
Cities constitute a privileged place to organise collectively and to imagine new ways of living and working together, spaces where bodies and minds interact and where ideas spread quickly and have unparalleled impact. Cities are also able to advance democracy to a greater extent than…
The new municipalism is part of a proud radical history
The article connects new municipalism with its roots by reflecting on the history of citizens taking collective control of local services. Photo: Pixabay
Dissemination report: Governing in and against austerity
This dissemination report titled Governing in and Against Austerity provides an overview and reports initial findings from eight case studies on austerity governance in Athens, Baltimore, Barcelona, Dublin, Leicester, Melbourne, Montreal and Nantes. Find the report here: Governing in and against austerity Photo: Philippe Oursel
From citizen platforms to Fearless Cities: Europe’s new municipalism
The growing momentum of local democratic initiatives seizing institutional power at a city level has great potential to address national and transnational political problems. In 2017 Barcelona hosted the Fearless Cities Summit, an international gathering which took important first steps in linking the new experiments…
What makes an empty building in Naples a “common good”?
Naples was the first Italian city to establish a “Department of the Commons” and the first to change the municipal statute by inserting the “commons” as one of the interests to be protected and recognised as a fundamental right. This italian city is just one…
Is America ready for a municipalist movement?
In the US, a new coalition of progressive forces is shaping up to protest views and policies deployed by president Trump. The articulation of forces against Trump. The municipal level is becoming a space for social resistance and political innovation, hence providing an opportunity for…
Flatpack democracy: the new English political revolt
While Scotland has blazed a new trail, much of England seems to have stuck to politics as usual. In fact, under the media radar, a growing number of self-styled independents are trying to kick out the big parties and take over the parts of government…
When a movement becomes a party: the experiment of Barcelona en Comù and the new network of Spanish democratic cities
To analyse and understand the ways in which it is possible for a decentralised and polycentric movement such as Barcelona en Comù to be voted at institutional level, D-CENT partners IN3 15M Data Analysis Group and Barcelona Media conducted the recently published research ‘When a…
When a movement becomes a party: The 2015 Barcelona City Council election
Did Barcelona en Comú preserve a decentralizated structure or adopted a conventional centralized organization during the 2015 Barcelona City Council election? In this article, the authors analyze the Twitter networks of the parties that ran for this election by measuring their hierarchical structure, information efficiency…