Metropolitics

The Emergence of Transnational Queer Organizing Across a Hardening US–Canada Border

Elizabeth Hessek — 2025-09-30T05:00:00Z

LGTBQ+ refugees in the United States not only face the violence of the nation's immigration policy but are also constrained by international agreements that limit Canada's ability to offer refugee status to them. Elizabeth Hessek describes how these challenges have created opportunities for transnational networks to support queer refugees wherever they may be.
As migration control has surfaced as a barometer of national sovereignty in public debate, recent migration scholarship has rejected

- From the Field / LGBTQ+, queer, community organizing, refugees, United States, Canada, North America, borders, immigration, immigration policy, networks

Underground Berlin: Where Infrastructure Meets Politics

Clarence Hatton-Proulx & translated by Oliver Waine — 2022-12-02T06:00:00Z

Water, electricity, gas: in Remaking Berlin, Timothy Moss presents a history of Berlin's infrastructure networks from 1920 to 2020, and shows how their operation has varied with successive political regimes.
For anyone interested in the history of cities, the case of Berlin is particularly rich. In less than a century, the German capital lived through a succession of different political regimes: the Weimar Republic, Nazi rule, the division of the city between two concomitant republics (one

- Reviews / Berlin, infrastructure, Germany, energy, history, networks, urban technical networks, utilities

Unlikely Inter-Class Cooperation in Urbanizing Rural Colombia

Sebastián F. Villamizar Santamaría — 2020-02-25T06:00:00Z

Sebastián F. Villamizar Santamaría examines a case of rural gentrification outside of Bogotá, Colombia, and shows how long-time peasants and former factory workers and upper-middle-class newcomers collaborate across class lines to manage fundamental resources, such as water, and pressure the state to provide necessary infrastructure and services.
“A new neighbor welcomes you; your neighbor, nature,” claims a billboard on the road between La Calera, a small town, and Bogotá, the Colombian

- From the Field / Colombia, Latin America, Global South, South America, rural, Bogotá, gentrification, rural gentrification, urbanization, suburbanization, rururbanization, water, urban public service, urban services, urban technical networks, utilities, infrastructure, social class, networks, water access

Electricity in War-Torn Aleppo: A New Form of Urban Management

Youssef Diab & Abboud Hajjar & translated by Oliver Waine — 2018-11-23T06:00:00Z

In Syria, electricity is one of the sectors most adversely affected by the war. New means of electricity production, provided by private individuals, are being developed to make up for the public sector's shortcomings. In examining the case of Aleppo, Abboud Hajjar and Youssef Diab have analyzed the creation of a marketplace for subscriptions to neighborhood electricity generators and the involvement of city dwellers in the day-to-day management of this sector.
Management of the electricity

- Essays / energy, networks, utilities, urban public service, war, Syria, urban technical networks, electricity, electricity generators, urban services, Aleppo

When Progressive Mayors Aren't Enough: Homes for All and Trans-Local Social Movements

H. Jacob Carlson & Marnie Brady & Gianpaolo Baiocchi — 2018-11-13T06:00:00Z

Progressive governments are often pulled away from their campaign promises by local growth-coalition interests or for other reasons. Social movements serve as necessary progressive counterweights. H. Jacob Carlson, Marnie Brady and Gianpaolo Baiocchi show how the growing Homes for All campaign uses trans-local organizing to connect organizers across distant places to build both local and national momentum for progressive housing demands.
---- Series: Progressive Mayors and Urban Social

- From the Field / housing, urban policy, social movement, United States, networks, affordable housing, progressive urban politics, policymaking, mayors, progressive mayors, trans-local, housing justice

Rio de Janeiro: An (Inequitably) Connected City?

Francesca Pilo' & translated by Oliver Waine — 2018-09-21T05:00:00Z

The tangled webs of electrical wires, a symbol of the favelas, are also the sign of an electricity service that remains profoundly unequal and uncertain in Brazilian cities. Francesca Pilo' considers the varying quality of electricity distribution in Rio de Janeiro, and shows how this network contributes to dynamics of urban fragmentation that go beyond the simple dichotomy between shanty towns and prosperous neighborhoods.
Despite the universal nature of electricity provision, in terms of

- From the Field / inequalities, energy, networks, utilities, urban public service, Global South, socio-spatial inequalities, Latin America, Brazil, favela, Rio de Janeiro, urban technical networks, electricity, social division of space, fragmentation, service provision, distribution, urban services

Local Leadership and Global Goals: How City Sustainability Networks are Changing Progressive Policymaking

Emma French & Supraja Sudharsan & Jennifer Clark — 2018-09-18T09:47:41Z

While national governments often struggle to address global climate change, cities are in a better position to innovate, especially through peer networks that publicly value sustainability. However, challenges remain, notably in translating intention into action and building internal capacity. Here, we show how mayors have influenced policymaking in four southeastern US cities.
---- Series: Progressive Mayors and Urban Social Movements The global nature of environmental crises has

- Essays / urban policy, New Orleans, environment, United States, energy, networks, resilience, progressive urban politics, climate change, climate action plans, Atlanta, urban sustainability, capacity building, policymaking, Houston, Orlando, mayors, progressive mayors

Shrinking Networks, Growing Solidarities? How to Design a New Social and Territorial Contract

Daniel Florentin — 2017-09-27T05:00:00Z

Utilities operators in a number of European cities, faced with significant reductions in consumption levels across the networked infrastructures they run, are at the forefront of urban shrinkage management. Unlike numerous works describing a neoliberal process of territorial dislocation, Daniel Florentin demonstrates, through the case study of Magdeburg in Germany, that these dynamics of shrinking water and energy consumption can also foster new solidarities in the management of large technical

- From the Field / deindustrialization, energy, water, networks, utilities, urban public service, Germany, solidarity, shrinking cities, urban decline, Magdeburg, urban shrinkage, degrowth, shrinkage, urban technical networks, urban services

Megacities and how to govern them: rethinking urban development in terms of infrastructure networks

Éric Verdeil & translated by Oliver Waine — 2015-09-25T05:00:00Z

Are colossal megalopolises like Shanghai or Mumbai uncontrollable? This collective work shows that nothing could be further from the truth: by proposing an innovative interpretation, on the margins of classic approaches centred on political institutions, it underlines the importance of technical networks in city governments.
Governing Megacities in Emerging Countries (Métropoles XXL en pays émergents in the original French) is an ambitious and stimulating book that seeks to shift the terms of

- Reviews / governance, networks, metropolis, Global South, urban growth, megacities

Water, sanitation, energy, waste: the dawn of the network-free city?

Sylvain Petitet & translated by Oliver Waine — 2012-04-18T04:45:00Z

Negative externalities, changes in society and technological innovation all call into question the industrial model used to organise urban services and utilities. For Sylvain Petitet, it is high time to consider new models and new complementarities for the provision of these urban services.
For almost two centuries, an industrial model characterised by the creation and operation of major urban networks has fashioned the development of cities and has established itself as the only service

- Debates / innovation, energy, water, public–private partnership, sanitation, waste, networks, territorial development, utilities, urban public service, urban technical networks, urban services