Four years ago progressive platforms won power in some of Spain’s biggest cities, including Madrid and Barcelona. The international left can learn a lot from their successes – and failures. Photo: Alex Wong

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)...

In an extraordinary move, the Asheville City Council apologized for the North Carolina city’s historic role in slavery, discrimination and denial of basic liberties to Black residents and voted to provide reparations to them and their descendants. This resolution called on the city to create...

This Wiki is an ongoing, open-ended online collaborative database and knowledge source for the Community of Practice of the UrbanA project. It captures the learning process of the UrbanA Community of Practice and is an important part of UrbanA’s knowledge commons. It includes a database...

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...

For people living in cities during the lockdown, space was a major concern, both in and outside the home. The pandemic has reconfigured the way we use and think about urban space. Will it be sufficient for a fairer, healthier city to emerge? Paola Hernández...

The global movements of 2011 reconfigured urban space as a new interface of collective action and policy creation. The new political narrative of cities is serving to counteract prevailing neoliberal narratives.More than a phrase, “the Cities of the Commons vs. global neoliberalism” could be understood...

How can new municipalism develop a progressive localism and forge translocal solidarities? This article considers municipalism as a form of progressive localism, which on the one hand connects the local and the global through translocal solidarity, and on the other scales-up and becomes an alternative...

The article connects new municipalism with its roots by reflecting on the history of citizens taking collective control of local services. Photo: Pixabay

This piece situates entrepreneurial municipalism as one strand in an assemblage of new municipalist interventions, between radical urban social movements and more neoliberal strategies such as financialised municipal entrepreneurialism. Exploring how local authorities are working with social enterprises to harness place-based assets in ways which...

In June 2017, a delegation of five members of the San Francisco chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America joined government officials, journalists, and activists from over 180 cities across five continents at the inaugural Fearless Cities summit in Barcelona, Spain. This article was published...

By building a “democracy from below,” the Zapatistas recognize the leadership of, and carry on a long tradition of resistance by Indigenous communities in Chiapas. Photo: Gareth Davies