1st Edition
Reclaiming Democracy in Cities
Effective urban governance is essential in responding to the challenges of inequality, migration, public health, housing, security, and climate change. Reclaiming Democracy in Cities frames the city as a political actor in its own right, exploring the city’s potential to develop deliberative and participatory practices which help inform innovative democratic solutions to modern day challenges.
Bringing together expertise from an international selection of scholars from various fields, this book begins with three chapters which discuss the theoretical idea of the democratic city and the real-world applicability of such a model. Part II discusses new and innovative democratic practices at the local level and asks in what way these practices help us to rethink democratic politics, institutions, and mechanisms in order to move toward a more egalitarian, pluralist, and inclusive direction. Drawing on the Istanbul municipal elections and the Kurdish municipal experience, Part III focuses on the question of whether cities and local governments can lead to the emergence of strong democratic forces that oppose authoritarian regimes. Finally, Part IV discusses urban solidarity networks and collaborations at both the local level and beyond the nation, questioning whether urban solidarity networks and alliances with civil society or transnational city networks can create alternative ways of thinking about the city as a locus of democracy.
This edited volume will appeal to academics, researchers, and advanced students in the fields of urban studies, particularly those with an interest in democratic theory; local democracy; participation and municipalities. It will also be relevant for practitioners of local governments, NGOs, and advocacy groups and activists working for solidarity networks between cities.
Introduction: Democracy's Crisis and Its Urban Resurgence
Gülçin Balamir Coşkun, Tuba İnal-Çekiç, Ertuğ Tombuş
Part I: Rethinking democracy from the local
1. The Dialectic of Urban Democracy: The Post-Democratic or the Democratizing City
Erik Swyngedouw
2. What Kind of Democratic Project Is the “City”? And What Does the New Municipalism Want to Do with It?
Ross Beveridge and Philippe Koch
3. The Idea of a Democratic City: An Attempt at Typology
Verena Frick
Part II: Local Governance and Participatory Practices
4. Practices of Inclusive Planning and Beyond: Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and its Vision for 2050
Tuba Inal-Cekic, Tayfun Kahraman, Meriç Demir-Kahraman, and Evrim Yılmaz
5. The Role of Civic Initiatives and NGOs in the Democratization of the Public Sphere via Participatory Planning Tools: Case Study of the Bashkortostan Region, Russian Federation
Oleg Pachenkov, Olga Sarapulova, Elmira Nizamova, Aleksandra Katasonova, and Darya Efremova
6. How do Free Cities Bring Their Citizens Back to Politics? Comparing Democratic Innovations in Budapest and Warsaw
Daniel Oross, Agnieszka Kampka
Part III: Cities as sites of opposition against authoritarian governments: Opportunities and Challenges
7. Metropolitan Politics and Administration of Hegemonic and Counter-Hegemonic Projects in Istanbul
Aslı Yılmaz Uçar
8. Disempowerment and Attempts of Self-empowerment: The case of Istanbul municipality
Oya Yeğen
9. New Municipalism in the Global South: The Antinomies of Kurdish Municipalism
Fırat Genç
Part IV: Solidarity, Alliances and Mobilization at the Local Level
10. Civil Society Practice for Housing Refugees in Vienna as a Guidepost for a Solidarity-Based Planning Concept
Helena Bernhardt
11. The Impact of Urban Solidarity Networks on Local Governance: Exercising Urban Democracy in Izmir, Turkey
Aslıhan Aykaç
12. From Place of Speculation to Space of Resistance: Transforming Urban Politics on Urban Redevelopment Projects in Seoul
Chungse Jung
13. Analysis of City Diplomacy in De-democratizing States: The Case of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality
Birgül Demirtaş
Biography
Gülçin Balamir Coşkun is an Associate Professor of Political Science. She is currently working as one of the senior research associates of the project “Judicial autonomy under authoritarian attack” at the Institut für Sozialwissenschaften, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Her research focuses on authoritarianism, judicial independence, rule of law, media capture, and digital censorship.
Tuba İnal-Çekiç is an Associate Professor of Urban Studies and a research fellow at the Center for Comparative Research on Democracy, Humboldt University Berlin. Her research interests are focused on authoritarian urbanism and urban movements from a participatory governance perspective. Her work delves into understanding the complexities of urban dynamics and exploring avenues for inclusive and participatory practices.
Ertuğ Tombuş is a Senior Research Associate at the Department of Social Sciences, Humboldt University Berlin, and the executive director of the Center for Comparative Research on Democracy. His primary research areas are democratic theory, critical theory, politics and law, constitutional politics, and populism.
