Defying all the theoretical predictions of the 1930s, capitalism has transformed itself from an economy surrounded by many precapitalist social and political formations into a society that itself has become “economized”. Is there a public realm that can become an arena for the interplay of...

As a fresh wave of popular revolt washes over the globe, the fundamental questions of how revolutions happen, and how emancipatory outcomes result, are suddenly concrete concerns for organizers and movement builders. Photo: Anthony

Gala Pin, Barcelona City councillor from 2015 to 2019, reflects on her experience at the front row of the municipalist transformation of the city during the first government of Ada Colau. Photo:

While today’s crises require action on a big scale, fighting for local democracy is the best chance to address them. Given that capitalism works at scale, radical municipalism requires collaboration at higher level to be successful. Gatherings as the Fearless Cities Summit in New York...

A network map of global municipalism. Photo: Anni Roenkae

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

The author asks: how can local action further our goals for global transformation? First, there is a reflection on the limits of local action and local democracy. Then the author goes back to social ecology writings and other theoretical discussions to find some clues. Finally,...

In June 2017, a delegation of five members of the San Francisco chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America joined government officials, journalists, and activists from over 180 cities across five continents at the inaugural Fearless Cities summit in Barcelona, Spain. This article was published...

Many 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...

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

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...

Scholars of participatory democracy have long noted dynamic interactions and transformations within and between political spaces that can foster (de)democratisation. At the heart of this dynamism lie (a) the processes through which top‐down “closed” spaces can create opportunities for rupture and democratic challenges and (b)...