Metropolitics

CALL FOR PAPERS | Governing Repair: The Role of Cities and States in Reparations Policy

2026-03-24T06:00:00Z

The Editorial Board is issuing a call for papers for a forthcoming special series in Metropolitics titled “Governing Repair: The Role of Cities and States in Reparations Policy” and edited by Prentiss A. Dantzler, Rashad Williams, and Akira Drake Rodriguez. We welcome abstract submissions through June 1, 2026.
It's been over a decade since Ta‑Nehisi Coates published “The Case for Reparations” in The Atlantic. In his article, Coates (2014) vividly recounts the harsh realities of housing

- Infos/Contact / Focus, call for papers

Black Power and Black Self-Determination in a New Time and New Spaces

Akira Drake Rodriguez & James DeFilippis — 2023-10-31T06:00:00Z

Black Power organizing in cities in the United States and around the world has a long history. This special series of articles focuses on efforts for Black political and economic power in the contemporary period, while drawing upon the efforts of those who have come before.
---- ▼ Jump to the list of articles in this series ▼ There is a long history of Black Power organizing in cities in the United States and around the world. While the language of Black Power is sometimes limited to a

- Series / Movement for Black Lives, Black politics, Black Power

Progressive Mayors and Urban Social Movements

Akira Drake Rodriguez & James DeFilippis & John Mollenkopf — 2018-09-11T05:00:00Z

The challenges of implementing progressive urban agendas are both structural and political in nature. This series explores these long-standing tensions within the contemporary contexts of growing metropolitan inequality, increasingly fractured political and cultural divides, and social movements in response to these changes.
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Creating an urban governing coalition that vigorously pursues public policies that reduce inequalities in income

- Series

Remaking Black Political Spaces for Black Liberation

Akira Drake Rodriguez — 2016-12-01T06:00:00Z

What are the political implications of the redistribution of the Black population in the US? Akira Drake Rodriguez looks back at the long-running strategies of Black political mobilization and the political economic contexts that have hindered them. She calls for moving beyond place-based electoral strategies with a full embrace of the Movement for Black Lives policy platform.
Following a politically volatile and racially charged election, this moment marks a particularly precarious state for

- Essays / gentrification, elections, race, space, Blackness, electoral geography, Black politics, political geography