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A democratic devolution underway in Barcelona: Barcelona en Comú
1st May 2015This paper seeks to outline the changes that enabled the citizen platform Barcelona en Comú (Catalan for “Barcelona in Common”) to win the elections in Barcelona in 2015, a victory that signaled a rupture in the status quo of Spanish politics. Although the citizen platform...
Debt. The straightjacket on municipalism
25th June 2020One of the main goals of the “municipalities of change”, elected in 2015 in Spain, was to tackle the debt problem. Drawing on the experience of civil society, they sought to develop approaches such as “citizen audits”, but found themselves facing the power of finance....
Re-grounding the city with Polanyi: From urban entrepreneurialism to entrepreneurial municipalism
9th January 2020This 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...
Seattleites form neighborhood groups to resist Trump
18th January 2017Following Trump’s victory at the presidential election in 2017, all of Seattle district’s formed Neighborhood Action Councils to help guard against the President-elect’s agenda. Photo: SenuScape
Rebuilding the commons: a global network of rebel cities takes shape, part I
6th October 2015The 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...
Towards democratic ownership of public services
12th May 2020The Covid-19 crisis has made clear the disastrous effects of years of austerity, social security cuts, and public service privatisation. But it has also demonstrated that public services and the people who operate them are truly the foundation of healthy and resilient societies. As privatisation...
The promise of radical municipalism today
25th May 2020Our cities are being hollowed out. Real estate developers carve up downtown areas for profit, displacing the poor to the urban periphery. One by one, public spaces are disappearing; cafés and libraries are closing down, and parks are increasingly patrolled by private security. Metropolitan sprawl...
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
City stories: The podcast by Energy Cities. Episode with Alba del Campo from Cadiz
1st April 2020In this episode of “City Stories” Alba del Campo, a Spanish journalist and activist fighting for more energy democracy. She has been an advisor to the local authority of Cadiz since 2015. A new local government elected in 2015 and re-elected in 2019. Since then,...
Barcelona plans major increase in ‘green’ zones
12th November 2020Barcelona is planning a major expansion of low-traffic zones, giving priority to pedestrians and cyclists to reduce pollution and provide green spaces. The work is part of a 10-year plan focusing on the central Eixample district of the Catalan capital, Mayor Ada Colau has announced....
Municipalism 101: Fearless Cities 2018
24th May 2019Barcelona en Comú is a part of a network of municipalist movements that calls themselves Fearless Cities. We will hear from Debbie Bookchin author and activist, based in New York; Rodgrigo Conejo of WikiPolitico based in Mexico; Kali Akuno of Operation Jackson based in Jackson...
The revolution will be ecologised: social change in the 21st century
17th July 2018The climate crisis today demands nothing less than a worldwide social and political transformation. Piecemeal reforms, technocratic schemes, and state-driven ‘climate resilience’ have proven not only ineffective at stymying the effects of climate change, but also utterly incapable of combating its underlying cause: a capitalist...