Metropolitics

An Unexpected Victory in the Fight to Save Philadelphia Chinatown

Andrew Lee — 2025-10-14T05:00:00Z

Grassroots efforts to counter gentrification-inducing megaprojects often fail as elected officials negotiate various interests. Using the case of 76 Place in Philadelphia, Andrew Lee examines the nuanced interplay of forces that spared Chinatown from a new arena.
“When they raze these streets, I'll no longer know which way my toes are pointed.” — Dylan Tran, “My Soul Travels Between Three Cities”
On December 19th, 2024, Philadelphia City Council voted 12–5 to approve 76 Place, a

- From the Field / Chinatown, Philadelphia, gentrification, Pennsylvania, United States, mobilization

Using Cross-Class Politics to Challenge Urban Housing Inequality in Islamabad, Pakistan

Hafsah Siddiqui — 2025-04-01T05:00:00Z

When redevelopment schemes target a city's poor for removal to provide opportunities for the privileged, how can poor residents assert a right to their home? With Islamabad as a case study, Hafsah Siddiqui shows how cross-class politics can be the basis for collaborative efforts for the poor to maintain a right to the city.
---- Series: Horizons in the Housing Struggle Islamabad is touted as Pakistan's loveliest city, with lush greenery and clean public spaces. The slogan “Islamabad the

- Essays / Global South, Asia, Pakistan, Islamabad, housing, right to housing, informal housing, urban services, social class, mobilization, urban inequality

Working-Class Ecology Versus Olympic Urbanism

Flaminia Paddeu & translated by Oliver Waine — 2024-04-19T05:00:00Z

In Aubervilliers, north of Paris, swathes of a community garden—the Jardins Ouvriers des Vertus—have been destroyed as part of preparations for the Paris 2024 Olympics. Flaminia Paddeu recounts the action taken by some of the Vertus gardeners and defends calls for a “right to land in the city”
Winter 2021 in Aubervilliers, in the northern inner suburbs of Paris. Behind a building site, between gardens and a few old buildings, a group of gardeners and residents with placards chant slogans such

- From the Field / Paris, Olympic Games, mobilization, urban planning, Paris region, Aubervilliers, Seine-Saint-Denis, ecology, community gardens, gardens, Greater Paris, Île-de-France

Female Factory Strikes: Emancipatory Non-Mixity?

Ève Meuret-Campfort & translated by Oliver Waine — 2024-01-26T08:14:00Z

The division of industrial labor often places women workers in all-female factories and low-skilled jobs. Ève Meuret-Campfort examines how periods of strike action lead—or do not lead—these workers to politicize and claim this de facto segregation as an instrument of emancipation.
In the industrial working world, women workers often find themselves in de facto non-mixed situations, concentrated in highly feminized employment sectors such as clothing (Maruani and Meron 2012). As a result of

- From the Field / workers, non-mixity, factories, mobilization, women, manual workers, feminism, politicization

New Tourism Geographies and the Politics of Tourist Taxation

Elizabeth Strom — 2022-06-07T05:00:00Z

The changing geography of urban tourism has led to new forms of political contestation. How hotel-tax revenues are spent—where and for whom—is a central issue. Elizabeth Strom argues that political mobilization can encourage elected officials and the tourism industry to use tax revenues to improve cities for residents, not just tourists.
Two decades ago, Dennis Judd wrote with some concern about the construction of “tourist bubbles”—the downtown enclaves found in US cities that included some

- Essays / tourism, urban tourism, taxation, hotel tax, protest, mobilization, United States

Covid‑19 in China: A Civil Society in the Making

Beiyi Hu — 2021-05-18T05:00:00Z

Beiyi Hu examines responses to Covid‑19 in China, focusing on civil-society efforts at the social, political, and policy levels that emerged in Wuhan during the pandemic. She shows that, even in state-dominated Chinese civil society, there was widespread self-organized social and political participation that arose from below.
This article explores responses to the Covid‑19 pandemic in China and examines the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the changing operation of Chinese civil society.

- From the Field / China, Wuhan, Hubei province, Covid-19, coronavirus, pandemic, civil society, participation, policymaking, public policy, political participation, social participation, mobilization

Holding Their Own: Gilets Jaunes' Occupation of Public Space

Antoine Bernard de Raymond & Sylvain Bordiec & translated by Oliver Waine — 2021-04-30T05:00:00Z

The Gilets Jaunes (“Yellow Vests”) movement that emerged in France in the fall of 2018 was striking by dint of both its reach and its duration. An ethnographic survey conducted in southwestern France shows that this success was in part due to the organizational, symbolic and social resources offered by the occupation of traffic circles and the construction of shacks.
The Gilets Jaunes (“Yellow Vests”) movement started with a national day of blockades and demonstrations organized on November

- From the Field / public space, gilets jaunes, mobilization, protest, social movement, occupation, periurban, France

Algeria's Hirak: When a Social Movement Puts Citizenship Under the Microscope

Islam Amine Derradji & Amel Gherbi & translated by Oliver Waine — 2021-03-26T06:00:00Z

The popular mobilization that rose up in Algeria in 2019 was not only a revolt against living conditions that had become unacceptable. It was also a movement that turned the country's streets into a stage for the organized construction of collective and political life by citizens seeking to revisit their history and assert their independence.
Since February 22, 2019, Algeria has been living to the rhythm of unprecedented mobilizations. Millions of Algerians took to the streets to oppose

- From the Field / North Africa, Maghreb, Africa, collective action, mobilization, civic organizing, demonstrations, protest, Algeria, social movement, citizenship, citizens

Fighting for Housing Justice: An Interview with Two Youth Organizers in Curtis Bay, Baltimore

Nicole Fabricant & Carlos Sanchez & Terriq Thompson — 2021-03-16T06:00:00Z

Two Baltimore youth organizers discuss the importance of community land trusts, for housing and beyond.
---- Series: Contemporary Housing Struggles: Crises, Activism, and Critical Research Free Your Voice began as an informal after-school program inside Baltimore's Benjamin Franklin High School. It has evolved into a powerful youth-led movement to end incineration, build community land trusts, and push for zero waste and just transition in Baltimore.
The group organized between 2012 and

- Interviews / community land trusts, community organizing, activism, mobilization, youth, youth organizing, housing, affordable housing, housing justice, Baltimore, United States, Maryland, land use, land rights

Electoral Organizing During a Pandemic: Lessons from Wisconsin

Aaron Shapiro — 2021-01-12T06:00:00Z

The global Covid‑19 pandemic has radically altered social and political practices. Aaron Shapiro reflects on the impact the pandemic had on electoral organizing leading up to the 2020 general election in Wisconsin and how organizers responded.
2020 was a year and an election season like no other. Any campaign with Donald Trump on the ballot was sure to be unorthodox, but the pandemic radically altered every aspect of social life and left an indelible mark on electoral organizing. Voter

- From the Field / Wisconsin, United States, US election, presidential election, elections, vote, coronavirus, Covid-19, mobilization, pandemic, Working Families Party