We can chart a new path forward by grounding that vision in the lessons learned from past struggles and an understanding of how hierarchy is the shared root of oppression. But this can all feel a bit intangible without clear examples. To get an idea of what...

Naples was the first Italian city to establish a “Department of the Commons” and the first to change the municipal statute by inserting the “commons” as one of the interests to be protected and recognised as a fundamental right. This italian city is just one...

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

Essential workers and their families have increasingly been forced out as Airbnb-style holiday rentals have taken over a third of Lisbon’s city centre properties, pushing up rental prices, hollowing out communities and threatening its unique character. Now the city wants to bring the people who...

If we want to create a democratic culture that invites people in, though, we can’t restrict our thinking only to big-P “Politics” as represented by elections, Westminster, and political parties. Participatory and collaborative decision making happens in all sorts of settings and places.We need a...

“Place-based civic tech”, citizen engagement technology codesigned by local government, civil society and global volunteers, constitutes a priced tool for the decentralization of power and decision-making. Together with certain offline practices, it fosters the politicization of civil society and renews the infrastructure of democracy. In...

Public-Common Partnerships offer an alternative institutional design to achieve social transformation. The PCP model exceeds the market/state binary while involving co-ownership between state authorities and Commoners Associations, alongside co-combined governance with a third association of project specific relevant parties such as trade unions and relevant...

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...

In 2017, the Transnational Institute launched Transformative Cities, an opportunity for progressive local governments, municipalist coalitions, social movements and civil society organizations to popularize and share their experiences of building solutions to our planet’s systemic economic, social, political and ecological crises. The Atlas of Utopia,...

For Mexico, Latin America and the international left, what emerged from the Chiapan mist along with the Zapatistas was the specter of revolution with a capital R—something the Mexican autocracy of the ruling Partido Revolucionario Institucional, the PRI, believed it had killed a long time...

New focus of protest has clearly emerged in France in these past years—bringing together Nuit Debout and the Gilets Jaunes, hospital and health care workers, pensioners and trade unionists, climate justice activists, Black Lives Matter activists. This locus has the attention of Macron, and of...

European institutions, telecom corporations and national governments are rushing to roll out 5G on the continent. The technology is promoted as a driver of growth and employment, but questions remain unanswered about its real economic benefits for people. On the ground, some are getting worried...