How Cities Can Transform Democracy

Urbanization is changing the ways we understand and practice politics, which has implications for democracy. This book argues that urbanization undermines the established certainties of nation-state politics and calls for a profound rethinking of democracy. It presents a novel way of seeing democracy as a city, shifting scholarly and activist perspectives from institutions to practices, from jurisdictional scales to spaces of urban collective life, and from fixed communities to emergent political subjects. Through a discussion of examples from around the world, the book shows that distinctly urban forms of collective self-rule are already apparent and reclaims the 'city as a democratic idea in a context of urbanization.

Format: Hardback
Length: 200 pages
Publication date: 28 October 2022
Publisher: Polity Press

Urbanization is a transformative force that is reshaping landscapes, built environments, social infrastructures, and everyday lives across the globe. It is also having a profound impact on the way we understand and practice politics. In this insightful book, the authors argue that urbanization undermines the established certainties of nation-state politics and calls for a radical rethinking of democracy. They present a novel perspective on democracy as a city, shifting scholarly and activist perspectives from institutions to practices, from jurisdictional scales to spaces of urban collective life, and from fixed communities to emergent political subjects.

Through a discussion of examples from around the world, the book demonstrates that distinct urban forms of collective self-rule are already emerging. The authors reclaim the "city as a democratic idea in a context of urbanization, seeing it as instrumental to relocating democracy in the everyday lives of urbanites."

This book is both original and hopeful, challenging the reader to abandon conventional understandings of democracy and embrace new vocabularies and practices of democratic action in the struggles for our urban future. It is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding the complex dynamics of urbanization and its implications for democracy.

Weight: 392g
Dimension: 217 x 143 x 23 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781509545988