1st Edition

Common Hegemony, Populism, and the New Municipalism Democratic Alter-Politics and Transformative Strategies

By Alexandros Kioupkiolis Copyright 2023

    Common Hegemony, Populism, and the New Municipalism critically explores the global rise of an alternative democratic politics since the 1990s in both practice and theory, from the Zapatistas’ insurrection to the 2011 cycle of democratic contestation and the ensuing municipalist movement in Spain.

    Staging an alternative to mainstream politics in both its statist and its activist variants, Alexandros Kioupkiolis combines a comprehensive and in-depth account of contemporary alter-politics with an extensive treatment of strategic challenges and broaches the question of strategy through theories of hegemony which are revisited and renewed by taking our lead from contemporary social movements and practices. Specific movements such as 15-M, and new municipalism, are examined to understand how these have transfigured the counter-hegemonic politics in the direction of egalitarianism, diversity, and grassroots self-government.

    Common Hegemony, Populism, and the New Municipalism will be of interest to researchers and students of contemporary political theory, democratic theory, and social movement studies.

    Introduction

    1 Mapping Democratic Alter-Politics

    2 Democratic Alter-Politics: Context and Strategic Predicaments

    3 Counter-Hegemonic Strategy for Building Collective Agency: Revisiting Gramsci and Laclau & Mouffe

    4 Another Leadership for Common Hegemony

    5 Common Hegemony and Populism 2.0

    6 New Municipalism as Alter-Political Strategy of Organization and Institutional Engagement: The Case of Spain

    7 Italian Paths to Urban Commoning: Other Strategies of Common Hegemony

    Epilogue: Political Organization for an Alter-Political Hegemony

    Biography

    Alexandros Kioupkiolis is Associate Professor in Contemporary Political Theory at Aristotle University, Greece. His research interests are on modern philosophies of freedom, contemporary philosophies of justice, theories of democracy, analyses, and critiques of power.