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...

The growing momentum of local democratic initiatives seizing institutional power at a city level has great potential to address national and transnational political problems. In 2017 Barcelona hosted the Fearless Cities Summit, an international gathering which took important first steps in linking the new experiments...

Major cities such as Amsterdam, Bangkok and Nairobi, Kenya, could experience major climate change impacts by 2050, according to a new study. Photo: Mumtahina Rahman

In a little-noticed procedural manoeuvre, in October 2020 the commission was forced to withdraw a so-called ‘Services Notification Procedure’ – which would have given it advance veto power over new laws by regional and local governments, and could have further limited local democratic initiatives in...

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

Activism is typically placed in opposition to state practice. Yet, state bodies often participate in campaigns and movements for change, drawing on different powers and capacities, including the ability to withhold goods, land and contracts. This article explores subnational state activism – what it means...

For many years the left has struggled with the question of how to bring our ideas, of equality, economic justice and human rights, to fruition. Murray Bookchin’s political trajectory is instructive for the argument that Debbie Bookchin makes in this article: that municipalism isn’t just...

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....

The conditions that brought about the “Greek crisis” are prevalent in many parts of the world and represent a new normality that threatens to shake the very foundations of social coexistence. Departing from the statement that the urban space is always a crystallization of broader...

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...

Cities are supposed to be built for all of us, but they aren’t built by all of us. Every city in the world has been designed and built by men. But what if the other half had a go? Barcelona might be able to give...

Instead of thinking of cities as pressure points for the global environment, we need to see them as innovation hubs for solutions to address climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss. Compact, green, inclusive urban centres are a critical weapon in our quest to keep the...