Politicising proximity : radical municipalism as a strategy in crisis
Roth, Laura (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)
Russell, Bertie (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
Thompson, Matthew (Cardiff University)

Date:	2023
Abstract:	As new municipalism comes of age, prefixes proliferate: from democratic and autonomist to post-growth and care municipalisms. How do all these variegations relate to each other and to the wider movement of which they claim a part? What does all this conceptual creativity amount to, epistemologically and politically? How can we distill the most salient lessons for the further development of theory and practice in the years ahead? This article is our attempt to answer such questions and to define more precisely the contours of this emerging field of praxis. First, we delineate within new municipalism the target of our analytical gaze -radical municipalism. Radical municipalism is not simply progressive policies happening in cities, and should not be conflated with pragmatic, entrepreneurial or state-centric perspectives. Rather, we argue it is a speculative hypothesis about how systemic transformation might be wrought through coordinated action at the urban or municipal scale, understood as a strategic entry-point for counter-hegemonic strug- gle. Key here is proximity and the politicisation and socialisation of proximate relations of encoun- ter and assembly. Second, we delve deeper into what we identify as four salient dimensions marking this terrain - economic reorganisation, democratisation of political decision-making, fem- inisation of politics, ecological transformation - as a multi-dimensional lens through which to introduce, and situate within the wider literature, the 15 articles that comprise this double special issue. Throughout these contributions to the theory and practice of municipalist strategy, the issue of crisis looms large: both historically, as an animating spur to action and opportunity for political intervention, and operationally, as a structuring condition and limiting factor of a strategy arguably in crisis itself. Finally, we reflect on the epistemological, methodological and political implications of pursuing radical municipalist strategies in the current conjuncture.
Grants:	European Commission. Horizon 2020 101026892
Note:	Altres ajuts: Economic and Social Research Council (ES/S012435/1: WISERD Civil Society: Changing perspectives on Civic Stratification and Civil Repair) ; Leverhulme Trust (ECF-2018-477: Reimagining the City: New Municipalism and the future of economic democracy)
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials, i sempre que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Citizen assembly ; Commons ; Ecological transformation ; Economic democracy ; Feminisation of politics ; New municipalism
Published in:	Urban Studies, 2023 , ISSN 1360-063X

DOI: 10.1177/00420980231173825

27 p, 394.1 KB

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