Political prisoner and theorist who helped cofound the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), Abdullah Öcalan, takes a closer look at the historical background of the paradigma between nation-state. With a view to issues of ethnicity and nationhood like the Kurdish question, which have their roots deep...

An interview with Iva Ivsic, local representative of Zagreb Je NAS! at the Our Common City conference in Budapest (February 22 & 23, 2019). Part one: Part two: Photo: Ash Edmonds

Rather than essentialising cities as inherently progressive or democratic, the municipal is instead becoming framed as a “strategic front” for developing a transformative politics of scale. Given this critical awareness, this nascent movement demonstrates how local loyalties can be mobilised as part of a progressive...

In 2014, and with the state government hell-bent on pushing through their privatization plans, ERA/FoEN launched the ‘Our water, Our Right’ campaign, a grassroots-heavy initiative that amplifies the voice of community people in Lagos, Nigeria. Since thise launch the campaign has held more than a...

In the 1970s, Chicago’s 44th Ward was placed under direct democratic control of its residents, challenging the corrupt mayor’s near-total control over the city. The objective of the ward assembly was two-fold: first, to direct the alderman on legislation in the city council, and second...

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

Democracy may look like a street protest where anyone leads a chant. It may look like a union meeting voting to strike. It may look like a lengthy speech by an elder explaining the founding values of the community. It may be an “assembly of...

The article analyses whether and how, two years into the first mandate, Spain’s Cities of Change jump from the streets to the institutions has helped advance the demands of the social movements from which these candidacies derived their legitimacy. Photo: Ann H

Coronavirus has exposed the true numbers of those “hidden homeless” who were sofa-surfing and dependent on the generosity of family and friends. As the UK went into lockdown, close on 15,000 people in England who had been sleeping on the streets or in crowded night...

PENGON-FoE  was established as an umbrella organization to coordinate among various Palestinian non-governmental organizations tackling issues of environmental sustainability in Palestine. It remains the only Palestinian environmental organization’s network that works in both the West Bank and Gaza, with fourteen organizational members within it. PENGON...

Airbnb hosts, as they are known, are wringing their hands over the collapse of the travel industry and their loss of income, and many city authorities are rubbing theirs at the prospect of thousands of holiday lets returning to the traditional rental market. The Airbnb...

What lessons can we draw from the experience of the first “rebel cities” of Spain in terms of confrontation with corporations and established powers? And how, beyond conquering government at municipal level, can we build strategies for effective and enduring change, with social movements and...