The term ‘common space’ describes commoning processes as opposed to a purely physical space. Its particular spatiality is a dynamic condition of space sharing that produces spaces in the making. Through self-managed initiatives, the ‘right to the city’ becomes the right to collectively produce it...

Nearly four billion meals are dished out every year in France’s school cafeterias and childcare kitchens. Catering companies such as Sodexo currently dominate this market, but, more often than not, the meals have little nutritional value and the companies fail to factor in environmental concerns....

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...

The first wave of municipalist governments in Spain was the result of the formation of confluences. The article analyzes their origin, their particularities and their common ground. It also addresses their potential for further transformation, both in Spain and beyond. Photo: Josh Sorenson

The role of local authorities in improving amenities was a matter of importance and some controversy before 1914 in England. A Medical Officer of Health was first appointed in Liverpool in 1847 but other cities did not do so until the 1860s, for example Manchester...

In Naples, the outsider candidate Luigi de Magistris, only supported by local movements and civil society, won the municipal elections in 2011. To be able to maintain their municipalist promise and face neoliberal challenges, there is a need for alliance with other communities. Photo: Lovefood...

Cyber security, data sovereignty, digital participation and digital services, complex topics that cannot be solved overnight. But the new government of Amsterdam is committed to dealing with these challenges. In contrast to the idea of the smart city, the aim is to develop new policies...

As the world continues to fight the rapid spread of coronavirus, confining many people to their homes and radically altering the way we move through, work in and think about our cities, some are wondering which of these adjustments will endure beyond the end of...

Is the left today “woke,” i.e. is it self-consciously learning from the limits of the path it has been on to design a new systemic architecture based on alternative, networked institutions to challenge the status quo? New institutions are needed because in the past farms,...

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)...

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...

Municipalism is evolving strongly in Spain and across Europe, as shown by the examples portrayed during the Fearless Cities encounter in Barcelona. While there is a need for democratic reform in New Zealand, the possibility of embracing municipalism as a tool for change would require...