1st Edition

Reclaiming Democracy in Cities

264 Pages 32 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

264 Pages 32 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

264 Pages 32 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

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.... Read more

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.