Last year Virginia Beach became one of a small but growing number of communities willing to say no to developers when it rejected a proposal to build a few dozen homes on this soggy parcel of 50 acres. A judge recently ruled that the city...

In June 2020, after a drawn-out process punctuated by the peak of the health crisis, Green lists excelled in France’s municipal elections. They are now at the head of the executive in some of France’s largest cities, including Marseille, Lyon, Bordeaux, Strasbourg, and Tours. In...

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

From 7 to 12 March 2017, the Biennale des Villes en Transition (Biennale of Cities in Transition) took place in Grenoble, organized by its City Council. Issues such as the Right to Housing, the management of common goods and public spaces as well as the...

Anti-austerity protesters across Southern Europe — many who had never been involved with politics before — have decided to try and turn their protests into a democratic alternative to the status quo. Photo: Clem Onojeghuo

Around 20,000 citizens protested in early February against Zagreb’s mayor and USKOK indictee Milan Bandić demanding his permanent removal from politics. Bernard Ivčić, from Green Action, said that citizens had come to say enough to Bandić’s system of clientelism, which is destroying Zagreb. Photo: Anna...

Over recent years there’s been a surge in European cities that, via public tendering, are using their spending power far more pro-actively and strategically to promote social justice and environmental goals. Leading this trend are city governments that define themselves as municipalist and are committed...

Cities are called to play a decisive role in mitigating and adapting to climate change and these transformations require collaboration between all levels of society, including administrations, companies, universities, research institutions and citizens. EIT Climate-KIC’s CEO Kirsten Dunlop disclosed the organisation’s Transformation, In Time strategy...

As part of the introductory speech made by activist and academic Elisabeth Dau in the Open Eyes Economy Summit held in Krakow on the 20th of November 2018, she explores the relationship between municipalism and cultural policies as “democratic culture.” Photo: Stephan Müller

One of the main challenges that strategies for social-ecological transformation are facing today is the fact that a majority of the world population lives in cities, which can be considered structurally unsustainable spaces. It is thus crucial to discuss how cities can be transformed from...

To fight the water privatization that is taking place in Jakarta, the organization Amrta Institute for Water Literacy is helping make water accessible to all the inhabitants of Jakarta. The  organization Amrta Institute for Water Literacy was shortlisted for the Transformative Cities People’s Choice Award...

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...