Take the City

With rapid increases in urban populations, there is an urgent need to transform our world’s cities in keeping with ecological imperatives and democratic principles. A growing worldwide citizen movement is attempting to challenge bureaucratic administrations and replace the politics of fear with neighbourhood power, direct democracy, and solidarity. They believe that threats of capitalism, totalitarianism, and climate change require imaginative political resistance rooted where they live.

Combining political theory, philosophy, history, and intimate narrative, Take the City! presents an expansive view of municipalist movements around the world. With over twenty contributors, including David Harvey, this anthology provides crucial insights into the challenges ahead by looking at and beyond municipal electoral politics. Stories of diverse regions and issues illuminate the nuances of municipalist movements of the past and present, providing a roadmap of the fight for our future. From Seattle to Kurdistan, Burlington to Oaxaca, Barcelona to Mississippi, and Vienna to Montreal, contributors carefully consider the intertwined questions concerning current crises in housing, the environment, democracy, and capitalism.

Contributors include David Harvey, Peter Marcuse, Brian Tokar, Nazan Üstündağ, Margit Mayer, Kate Shea Baird, Anna Kruzynski, Jonathan Durand Folco, members of Symbiosis, Robert Kaminski, Donald Cuccioletta, Barucha Peller, Antje Dieterich, Jonny Gordon-Farleigh, and Austin Krauss.

Jason Toney is an editor, researcher, and activist based in the United States.