The Consortium

The University of Amsterdam (UvA) is a dutch research and teaching organization founded in 1632. The Center for Urban Studies (CUS) at the University of Amsterdam is one of the largest and most prominent of its kind. The CUS stimulates interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaborative projects on urgent issues facing cities. It CUS serves as a hub for local networks spanning the university, civil society, businesses, and governments as well as for global networks of urban scholars, practitioners and policy makers.

The CUS’ tasks in the project include the overall project coordination in WP1, leading WP2 on elaborating the shared approach and common hypotheses, and the conducting of the fieldwork in Amsterdam in WP3.

The Institut de Recerca Urbana de Barcelona (IDRA), formerlly La Hidra, is a research and advocacy institute dedicated to making cities more equitable and sustainable by combining the efforts of social movements, policy makers and engaged academics. The center is renowned for its capacity to bring together the production of scientific knowledge with the creation of practical solutions around critical challenges such as housing rights, environmental justice, urban planning, and inequality. Over the last years, IDRA has been deeply involved in both the construction and conceptual analysis of municipalism in a vast array of European and Latin American cities, working with scholars, local communities, cooperatives, bottom-up entrepreneurs, and urban governments.

Idra’s main tasks in the project will be leading WP4 for the urban living labs in Barcelona and the transnational exchange of policy prototypes in WP6.

The University of Vienna (UniVie) is an Austrian research and teaching organization founded in 1635. The Research Platform “The Challenge of Urban Futures” at the UniVie is a dynamic center undertaking research in the area of Urban Policies and Social Sciences broadly conceived. The Platform’s analytical focus hinges on the city as a focal point where broad processes materialize and inter-relate. The Platform aims at unravelling the social, cultural, economic and politico-institutional mechanisms underlying the convergences and divergences across urban space, focusing on rescaling processes and governance structures. To achieve this ambitious task, the Research Platform brings together researchers both within and outside the University of Vienna sharing expertise on the multifarious facets of cities. The Platform adopts an holistic approach, drawing on interdisciplinarity, comparisons, and advanced data analysis.

In MUNEX, UniVie leads WP5 on the Vienna living labs and WP7 on knowledge dissemination.

The Transnational Institute (TNI) is an international research and advocacy institute committed to building a just, democratic and sustainable planet. Since its foundation in 1974, TNI has served as a unique nexus between social movements, engaged scholars and policy makers. With more than 30 researchers and support staff, it works with social movements and activists to translate bold and broad visions into pragmatic and just solutions.

TNI’s role in the project is to facilitate the transnational exchange of municipalist policy ideas and prototypes through the organization of international meetings that bring together researchers, practitioners, and activists. It takes a prominent role in WP6 on transnational policy exchange and WP7 on dissemination and a supporting role in WP2 on the elaboration of a shared approach.

The Municipality of Amsterdam employs around 15.000 people to serve Amsterdam’s population of around 820.000 residents. The Municipality of Amsterdam’s tasks in the project include participation in the Amsterdam living lab, co-producing a prototype of a municipalist policy measure to foster an inclusive and diverse political culture, providing feedback for the research, and making connections between the university and local stakeholders.

The Municipality plays a prominent role in WP3 on the living lab in Amsterdam and a supporting role in WP2 on the elaboration of a shared approach and WP7 on dissemination.

The city of Barcelona constitutes a unique case study for the analysis of innovative forms of democratic governance, due to the existence of a municipalist movement that since 2015 has endeavored to boost civic engagement in urban governance. This particular conjuncture provides us with an opportunity to explore the strengths and limitations of territorialized politics, grassroots mobilization, alternative institution-building processes, and how they are influencing policy transformations.

The City plays a prominent role in WP4 on the living lab in Barcelona and a supporting role in WP2 on the elaboration of a shared approach and WP7 on dissemination.

The City of Vienna is both a federal state and a municipality of Austria. The former gives the City some tax sovereignty and more redistributive power, which led a strong orientation towards providing key services such as affordable housing, public transport and green space. The City consists of 23 districts and these districts also holds some power over financing and implementing green and transport infrastructure. As such the administration of the City of Vienna, which employs around 32.000 people, aims to achieve a high quality of life for its 2 million residents.

The City of Vienna plays a prominent role in WP5 on the living lab in Vienna and a supporting role in WP2 on the elaboration of a shared approach and WP7 on dissemination.

Kracht van Mokum is a federation of neighborhood organizations with diverse backgrounds and ranging from large and established organizations to emerging informal initiatives. “Mokum,” originally a Yiddish term, is slang for Amsterdam, and “Kracht” refers to strength of power, meaning that Kracht van Mokum refers to the power present in the city’s formal and informal resident networks. In line with municipalist policy philosophy, Kracht van Mokum to localize politics, amplify marginalized voices, and revise government policy so that it becomes open and amenable to bottom-up initiatives.

Kracht van Mokum plays a prominent role in WP3 on the living lab in Amsterdam and a supporting role in WP2 on the elaboration of a shared approach and WP7 on dissemination.

Coòpolis is a dynamic center for the promotion of municipalism and cooperativism: a strategic facility for the social and solidarity economy (SSE), at the Barcelona and Catalan scale. It is currently the largest cooperative promotion center in southern Europe, with a footprint of almost 4,200 square meters. Coòpolis acts as the Cooperative Athenaeum of Barcelona, an incubator of cooperative startups that works with the Barcelona City Council and receives its economic support. At the Catalan level, it is part of the Network of Athenaeum Cooperatives of the ARACOOP Program; a program which has enabled the creation of a network of ten cooperative athenaeums around Catalonia and a fundamental part of the legal-institutional framework of the social economy and its promotion policies.

Coopolis plays a prominent role in WP4 on the living lab in Barcelona and a supporting role in WP2 on the elaboration of a shared approach and WP7 on dissemination.