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...

Tourism accounts for about an eighth of GDP in Spain and Italy, which were both badly hit by the coronavirus. Desperate not to lose the summer, Italy cautiously reopened its borders and Spain it set to follow. But no one expects mass tourism to resume...

Social change and systems change go hand-in-hand. Movements for democracy and human rights are most effective when they aim to transform unjust, unequitable economic systems. In this episode, Laura Flanders travels to Spain to learn how people in two of the regions most brutally repressed...

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...

Scholars of participatory democracy have long noted dynamic interactions and transformations within and between political spaces that can foster (de)democratisation. At the heart of this dynamism lie (a) the processes through which top‐down “closed” spaces can create opportunities for rupture and democratic challenges and (b)...

Municipalist movements from all over Europe gathered in the Serbian capital in June 2019 to exchange ideas and plan a common strategy against deeply entrenched political structures in their home countries in the fifth Fearless Cities summit. How municipalist movements can help shape the future...

Some issues have recently arisen in discussions of libertarian municipalism. One of the most important involves the distinction that should be drawn between libertarian municipalism and communitarianism, a distinction that is often lost in discussions of politics. The article offers the author’s views on this...

City governments were an important source of environmental protection in the United States from the 1800s until well into the 1900s. However, since Congress passed a series of landmark environmental statutes in the 1970s, scholars have primarily equated environmental law with federal law.  NYU Law...

As faith in political systems and politicians continues to plummet and climate change escalates, an alternative that empowers local people to rescue their own communities is vital. How can politics be reclaimed by the people? Fed up with seeing their valued local services crumble over...

The coronavirus shutdown has had a devastating effect on European city’s economy like Amsterdam, Prague and Barcelona. Tourism is the lifeblood of many of these continent’s historic cities, many hope the pandemic will end up changing tourism for the better. According to Shaul Bassi, director...

The book examines what value, if any, the state has for the pursuit of progressive politics; and how it might need to be reimagined and remade to deliver transformative change. Photo: Peter Döpper

Mississippi is the poorest state in the U.S. with the highest percentage of Black people and a history of vicious racial terror. The concurrent Black resistance is the backdrop and context for the drama captured in the collection of essays that is Jackson Rising: The...