The aim of the dossier is to bring together experiences from three European cities with engaged research into municipalist practices. The collection of articles seeks to contribute to the current academic and societal debate on the roles of researchers, especially those that actively engage with their research subject. Municipalism provides a concrete case, which concerns the recent movement of urban communities together with local government developing new ways of influencing local developments. Municipalism redefines the role of the citizen and the municipality and the relation between them, geared towards a plurality of progressive policies in several cities across Europe and the Americas. But what of the role of researchers? The overarching question connecting this collection of articles is: What roles can/ should/ do researchers take in such processes?
The following contributions and articles have been written and are under review:
- Ahn, Byeongsun, and Kazepov Yuri. “New Municipalism from a Design Perspective: Actors, Institutions, Processes and Challenges” [submitted on 25.12.2023].
- Huisman. Carla . “Provocateur, supporter, mediator: an emancipatory epistemology of roles” [submitted on 22.12.2023].
- Ruben, Martínez, Jaimee, Palomera. “Militant Research and Public Policy: From reform to action and from action to reform” [submitted on 05.02.2024].
- Uitermark, Justus. “[Provisional title] Introduction to the dossier: Towards Emancipatory Epistemologies- Experiences with engaged geographical research into municipalist practices”.