What’s so new about new municipalism?
This article identifies three new municipalisms – platform, autonomist, managed – whose characteristics, contradictions, interconnections and potentials are explored in terms of state-space restructuring, urban-capitalist crisis and cycles of contention. Photo: Sharon McCutcheo
The new municipalism (part 1)
What is “New Municipalism”? In this first of a new series Ross seeks clarification from scholar-activists Bertie Russell and Matt Thompson who give us a conceptual and historical take on this new urban movement, offering reflections on UK examples like Preston. Photo: Henry & Co.
Re-grounding the city with Polanyi: From urban entrepreneurialism to entrepreneurial municipalism
This piece situates entrepreneurial municipalism as one strand in an assemblage of new municipalist interventions, between radical urban social movements and more neoliberal strategies such as financialised municipal entrepreneurialism. Exploring how local authorities are working with social enterprises to harness place-based assets in ways which…
Social ecology: radicalizing the climate movement
Climate change is the most pressing issue of our time. Examining social ecology provides the missing link in understanding the radicalization of the environmental movement historically and in constructing a dual power climate strategy for the future. Photo: Public Domain Pictures
Municipalist syndicalism: from the workplace to the community
Unions controlled by the rank-and-file can serve as a dual power bridgehead towards the democratization of cities, states and capital. Photo: Pixabay
The confederation as the commune of communes
Confederalism as a revolutionary strategy provides us with the means to build and organize a radically democratic and egalitarian society at scale. To understand how the confederation can form a real threat to the ruling class, one needs first to understand the strategy of social…
Cities driving the world
The recently published Global Urban Competitiveness Report argues that advanced cities have driven the world’s progress and even led to changes in the world’s development patterns since the first industrial revolution of the 18th century. The article contents a competitive ranking of 1,006 of the…
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….
Direct democracy and the passion for political participation
Yavor Tarinski is an independent researcher and activist whose publications and talks center on the possibilities of direct democracy and commoning practices as an alternative to the current social imaginary. In this interview with Eve Olney he discusses some of the ideas regarding where direct…