All over the globe, corporations and politicians are hyping up the concept of “smart cities”, but what exactly lies behind the catchy slogan? And whose interests does it serve? There is growing resistance to the idea due to fears of privatisation, increasing surveillance as well...

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 this interview Lucía Morale, advisor to the security department of Barcelona city council, about the specific features of the Catalan capital, explains why it is essential to build security policies that are both intersectional and global. She also tells us how, in the context...

The book Sharing Cities looks back at the creation of Sharing Cities, composed of fifty cities around the world that began mapping their shared resources in October and November 2013 during Shareable’s first annual #MapJam. This was just the beginning of the Sharing Cities Network...

Earthworker is a worker owned coop in Morwell, Australia. Within this coop is a solar hot water enterprise, Red Gum Cleaning Cooperative, an energy retailing coop and plans for hemp manufacturing and a journalists’ coop. The  organization Earthworker was shortlisted for the Transformative Cities People’s...

While Scotland has blazed a new trail, much of England seems to have stuck to politics as usual. In fact, under the media radar, a growing number of self-styled independents are trying to kick out the big parties and take over the parts of government...

Horní Jiřetín, a small town in the Czech Republic, was set to be wiped off the map and replaced by a brown coal mine. The end of Communist rule and the privatisation of the coal company was not going to change the town’s fate. But...

A former coal mining town in the North of France, Loos-en-Gohelle shows how a town can free itself from fossil fuel dependence through democratic participation, beginning with the real needs of locals. Photo: Pawel Blazewicz

In cities across the world social movements are collectively fighting back against the complex causes and corrosive outcomes of neoliberal capitalism. These ‘Fearless Cities’ are highlighted in the Transnational Institute’s Atlas of Utopias. Much of their thinking is based on the concept of radical municipalism,...

Anti-austerity protesters across Southern Europe — many who had never been involved with politics before — have decided to try and turn their protests into a democratic alternative to the status quo. Photo: Clem Onojeghuo

How did France, a pioneer of water privatisation, become a hotbed for remunicipalisation? Cities like Paris and Grenoble not only ended the domination of corporate heavyweights like Veolia and Suez over the sector, but also played a key role in inventing a new generation of...

City governments were an important source of environmental protection in the United States from the 1800s until well into the 1900s. However, since Congress passed a series of landmark environmental statutes in the 1970s, scholars have primarily equated environmental law with federal law.  NYU Law...