Cities are increasingly a major cause of, but also a potential solution for, environmental and social crises. Across the world, a new wave of urban social movements are arising: movements building economic, social, and political alternatives based on solidarity, equality, and participation. At the forefront...

The term “community organising” has become such a part of the modern political landscape on the left that it is easy to forget that it has a relatively recent history and a specific origin. Indeed, it has come to encompass all manner of movement-building and...

As the effects of climate change start to become more obvious year after year, we are faced with a conundrum. Today, progressives need to address both climate change and its effects, like heat waves and flooding. What we need is a political movement that links...

The article analyses the results of the 2019 municipal elections in Spain in different cities. According to the author, in order to understand the situation it is useful to pay attention to what happened to “the three souls of the movement”: traditional “left” forces, grassroots...

Many social movements have created municipalist platforms, run for municipal elections, were elected and are now trying to change the game of traditional representative democracy from the municipality. This paper primarily intends to capture the tensions and paradoxes generated by the adoption by these movements...

An interview with Iva Ivsic, local representative of Zagreb Je NAS! at the Our Common City conference in Budapest (February 22 & 23, 2019). Part one: Part two: Photo: Ash Edmonds

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...

Drawing on insights from her latest book “Global Urban Politics”, Julie-Anne Boudreau puts the current response to the coronavirus in Mexico City and Montreal in a larger frame of understanding. She elaborates on the difference between urban and state logics of action and its importance...

An interview with Dobrica Veselnovic, co-founder of Ne Da(vi)mo Beograd during the Our Common City conference held in Budapest (February 22 & 23, 2019). Part one:     Part two:

Given “new municipalist’s” aspirations towards the transformation of the municipal state, how might state theory inform research and practice on new municipalism going forward? This is the question with which Bertie Russell concludes his paper which focuses on municipalist initiative Barcelona En Comú’s endeavours towards...

A globalised city like Barcelona can choose to either continue on its current path towards becoming a “showcase city” – one that is eager to please tourists and investors, or rebuild the city, basing it on the idea of an “agora” city – focussed on...

Climate change is the most pressing issue of our time. Examining social ecology provides the missing link in understanding the radicalization of the environmental movement historically and in constructing a dual power climate strategy for the future. Photo: Public Domain Pictures