local democracy

Debates

Silent Suppression: How Local Politicians Stifle Collective Action in Working-Class Neighborhoods

Julien Talpin & translated by Oliver @Waine - 19 October 2018
Taking as its starting point a study of a neighborhood roundtable in the northern French city of Roubaix, this...
From the Field

In the shadow of the mayor

Michel Koebel & translated by Oliver @Waine - 25 June 2014
After his investigation into the representativeness of local councillors in France, Michel Koebel has now turned...
Debates

Preparing for a protest vote?

Rémi Lefebvre & translated by Oliver @Waine - 18 June 2014
Between 2008 and 2014, the French Socialist Party was, more than ever before, a party of “local politicians”. Here,...
From the Field

Municipal socialism in France from the interwar period to the 1970s

Aude Chamouard & translated by Oliver @Waine - 30 April 2014
“Municipal socialism” has marked the history of many cities in France (Lille, Toulouse and Bordeaux, to name but...
Debates

The Localism Act in London: institutionalising urban divisions

Justinien Tribillon - 16 April 2014
By decentralising planning powers to local communities, the British Conservative government claims that they are...
Debates

Will local-government reform in London involve or abandon its citizens?

Martine Drozdz & translated by Oliver @Waine - 3 July 2013
While the current financial crisis has compromised local authorities’ ability to deliver municipal services, the...
Reviews

Intercommunality, or the broken promises of local democracy

Stéphane Cadiou & translated by Oliver @Waine - 16 January 2013
As a new territorial reform is set to be enacted in France, what lessons can be learned from past reforms? In La...
Essays

Participatory democracy in France: subsumed by local politics

Rémi Lefebvre & translated by Oliver @Waine - 9 January 2013
In spite of the development of new forms of participatory democracy, turnout at local elections in France has never...
Debates

Do local politicians represent the people? A sociological portrait

Michel Koebel & translated by Oliver @Waine - 28 November 2012
France’s 500,000 local councillors are regularly presented as the most popular elected officials and those closest...
Debates

Shale Gas: Local Democracy vs Central Government

Pascal Terrasse & translated by Oliver @Waine - 18 January 2012
Without local consultation, the French government has granted permission for the exploration of shale gas plays...

Series

Urban Wastes, Present and Future
New York Dossier: The Food Industry Faces the Covid‑19 Pandemic
Cities in the Age of Financialization
Contemporary Housing Struggles: Crises, Activism, and Critical Research
New York Tech Dossier: The Dark Side of New York’s Tech Economy
Progressive Mayors and Urban Social Movements
Land Rights in the Urban Global South
Climate Change and Social Change
Shrinking Cities

Featured

Debates

Covid-19, War, and Working-Class Neighborhoods

Pierre Gilbert & translated by Oliver @Waine - 5 June 2020
The residents of France’s working-class neighborhoods, accused of exacerbating the coronavirus pandemic through...
Essays

Sentinel Territories: A New Concept for Looking at Environmental Change

David Blanchon & Frédéric Keck & François-Michel Le Tourneau & Stéphane Tonnelat & Adriana Zuniga-Teran - 8 May 2020
In this essay, the authors develop the concept of “sentinel territories,” or environments where humans can perceive...
From the Field

Who Cleans Paris? Garbage Collectors in Their Own Words

Coline Ferrant & Marie Mourad & translated by Oliver @Waine - 21 June 2019
Who are Paris’s garbage collectors? Coline Ferrant and Marie Mourad highlight the diverse working conditions covered...
From the Field

Moving Inside City Limits: The Urban Mobility of Undocumented Youth

Stephen P. Ruszczyk - 4 June 2019
The urban context and public transportation shape how undocumented youths move within cities. In a comparison of...
Interviews

Teaching Art and the History of Tattoos at Rikers Island: An Interview with Tamara...

Lisa Jean Moore - 22 January 2019
An interview with Tamara Santibanez, who teaches art and the cultural and social history of tattoos to youth...
From the Field

Snowbirds’ Gift Economy in the Arizona Desert

David Frati - 7 November 2017
Each year, 200,000 retired people spend the winter in and around the small town of Quartzsite, Arizona, in the...

Other resources online

Cycles of Violence: Analysing Media Discourse in the Newspaper...

Mobile Lives Forum
How are cyclist and pedestrian deaths depicted in newspaper reports, and how do these reports help shape...

Lahti: The First Carbon-Rationing Experiment Applied to Local...

Mobile Lives Forum
The city of Lahti in Finland was the first to experiment with a carbon-trading scheme among its inhabitants to...

Is Rationing Carbon for Travel a Fair, Efficient, and Realistic...

Mobile Lives Forum
In the wake of the pandemic, a carbon tax at Europe’s borders is now on the agenda, but a domestic version for...

Reducing Carbon-Emitting Travel: A Factor of Social Cohesion and...

Mobile Lives Forum
As part of France’s Mission on the Future of the Economic Model of Public Transportation, commissioned by the French...

Strasbourg, An Example of a Cycling City

Mobile Lives Forum
Strasbourg is the leading city for cycling in France and a constant source of inspiration for all French cities...

The Trinity of Walking, Cycling and Public Transportation Must Be...

Mobile Lives Forum
While emissions from the transportation sector remain at a very high level, all hopes are currently pinned on the...
Centre national de recherche scientifique
Journal supported by the Institut des Sciences Humaines et Sociales (Institute of Human and Social Sciences) of the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS)

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