Cities in Search of Freedom: European Municipalities against the Leviathan

Description

Over the past decades the nation state lost its political primacy by processes of devolution, Europeanisation and globalisation, which in turn enhanced municipal autonomy. Why do some cities seek to sidestep the state and widen their sphere of action? Bridging political geography, local politics and urban sociology, this book gives a new perspective on the state’s weakening authority and the parallel rise of cities as political actors. The author considers the tensions between central states and European cities, giving a new perspective to students and researchers in the social sciences. Front Cover Cities In Search of Freedom: European Municipalities against the Leviathan Copyright information Table of Contents List of Figures 1 Introduction The unit of analysis: which cities? The double nature of cities Of cities, states and beyond About this book 2 The Ebbs and Flows of Cities as Political Actors Introduction An evolutionary perspective of municipal autonomy The municipal roots of the European political geography: a historical sketch The Middle Ages The early modern period The late modern period: the 19th and 20th centuries The fortunes of cities in the contemporary period Conclusion 3 The Persistence of Urban Identity in the Global World Introduction The global–local duality Cities in the global flow The resilience of the urban and the persistence of local identity Conclusion 4 Fleeing the State Introduction The loosening of the central–local relations EU opportunity structures Decentralisation reforms and municipal agency Paradiplomacy as a means for municipal self-determination The soft power of influence Paradiplomacy as latent contention Conclusion 5 The Municipalisation of the European Political Space Introduction Between theory and praxis The conceptual morphology of European municipalism as ideology Core concepts Municipal self-government Mutuality and universalism Europeanism Coterminous concepts State and market Participation and elitism The perimeter Conclusion 6 Civitas Activa: The Mobilising Potential of Cities Introduction The political and political action The political as conflict The political as deliberation The urban and the political Civitas activa: issues of initiation and activation Civitas activa in the polis: a recipe against political apathy? 7 A Municipal Way Out? Introduction The fragmentation of authority and the faltering state sovereignty Fighting the Leviathan: municipal statecraft Will cities rescue the EU? Notes References Index