Will coronavirus kill democratic local government?
If there’s one lesson the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us, it is that local government plays a vital role in people’s lives – and elected local politicians are better placed to make decisions that affect the communities they serve than distant apparatuses with little understanding…
Cities of dignity: Urban transformations around the world
One of the main challenges that strategies for social-ecological transformation are facing today is the fact that a majority of the world population lives in cities, which can be considered structurally unsustainable spaces. It is thus crucial to discuss how cities can be transformed from…
Pandemic municipalism
Kate Shea Baird talks about her article, Lessons from the pandemic for the municipalists in Spain, on the This is Hell! podcast, commenting on US politics and Spanish municipalism. Beginning with the question of why Trump is so frightened at the movements that question the…
Turmoil in South Africa’s capital city points to the need to overhaul local democracy
The 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…
A green wave and a citizen slap in the face
The results of the French municipal elections are a call on our elected representatives, civil society and citizens to mobilize in favour of the necessary democratic, ecological and social transformation of our societies. Because our representative democracy has never been so out of breath. Because…
Cities on the frontline: managing the Coronavirus Crisis
This CIDOB Report examines how 12 cities around the world have managed the COVID-19 crisis and provides lessons to help guide future urban action. These include learning to govern complex, uncertain scenarios by placing decentralisation, cooperation and resilience at the heart of public policies; rethinking…
Lessons from the pandemic for the municipalists in Spain
How has COVID-19 affected municipalism’s confederal and democratizing mission? In Spain, as elsewhere, the government’s response to the pandemic has implied a centralization of power. At the same time, municipalities are seeing their already limited resources stretched to the limit by the health and economic…
“Stop 5G”. Residents, doctors and judges going against the grain of Italy’s infatuation with smartphones
European institutions, telecom corporations and national governments are rushing to roll out 5G on the continent. The technology is promoted as a driver of growth and employment, but questions remain unanswered about its real economic benefits for people. On the ground, some are getting worried…
Leaving water privatisation behind. Paris, Grenoble and the advent of the water remunicipalisation movement in France
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…