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What’s it like for a social movement to take control of a city?
11th May 2018We 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...

The new municipalism is part of a proud radical history
19th August 2017The article connects new municipalism with its roots by reflecting on the history of citizens taking collective control of local services. Photo: Pixabay

Cities against the wall
21st July 2017The 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

Grenoble, France: Citizen participation in water utility delivers low tariffs for its poorest residents
3rd December 2018Elected officials and environmental activists mobilised in Grenoble in the 1980s and 1990s to prove that corruption was involved in many deals, and set up an alternative, municipal entity to take back and run the water utility. Remunicipalisation took place in 2001, and opened the...

Turmoil in South Africa’s capital city points to the need to overhaul local democracy
30th June 2020The City of Tshwane, home to South Africa’s government and foreign diplomats, has been rocked by political turmoil for nearly a year. Coalition arrangements were first made after the 2016 municipal elections which finally collapsed earlier this year. This jockeying for power by the parties...

Project Eject, the people’s assemblies, and the question of autonomy
19th December 2017Many people throughout the United States have been inspired by the gains of the social movements in Jackson over the past decade. And many have been extremely confused and disappointed by the apparent “internal” strife that has erupted within and between factions of the progressive...

Communist Mayor [komünist başkan]
21st July 2019Fatih Mehmet Macoglu is a Turkish politician of Zaza descent of the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP). He was elected mayor of Ovacık in 2014, where he was known for implementing initiatives like free public transport and agricultural projects such as bee keeping and cultivating...

What can we learn from Latin America’s solidarity cities?
20th May 2020Acts of solidarity are trying to prevent migrants – especially those without or with only precarious legal status – from falling through the cracks of government responses to the COVID-19 crisis. These acts are necessary because national governments throughout Latin America have turned a blind...

How can activists change politics with limited means?
31st July 2019An interview with David Bravo (Barcelona en Comú) at the Our Common City conference in Budapest (February 22 & 23, 2019). Part one: Part two:

American cities are built for cars. The coronavirus could change that.
26th May 2020As the Covid-19 crisis wears on, a surprising tool has emerged in the effort to slow transmission: city streets. The car has long been king in America’s cities, with spacious roadways edged by narrow sidewalks. But with many sidewalks barely large enough for the six...

Social ecology: Communalism against climate chaos
27th December 2017Social ecology, as understood by Murray Bookchin and others, can offer a response to the challenges of climate change. The author describes the philosophy of social ecology and also its political strategy in order to reflect about its ability to overcome the limits of local...

Food systems are fodder for curbing cities’ environmental impacts
16th March 2020Focusing on urbanization as a key driver of environmental change in the 21st century, researchers have created a framework to understand and compare cities’ food systems and their effects on climate change, water use and land use. The research will allow planners to estimate the...











