The democratising capacity of new municipalism
Beyond Direct Democracy in Public–common Partnerships
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6327437 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Iolanda Bianchi (0000-0003-2829-9326, University of Antwerp, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 53 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 403-422 |
| Publication date | 2025-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Policy & Politics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0305-5736 • E-ISSN: 1470-8442 |
| Publisher | Bristol University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1332/03055736y2024d000000033 |
| OpenAlex | W4392907035 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 13 |
| References cited | 32 |
New municipalism, in its endeavour to democratise urban politics and policy, employs innovative strategies including public–common partnerships, which seek to support citizens in self-managing public goods and services. Proponents of new municipalism claim that these partnerships have a democratising capacity, as self-management is seen as an expression of direct democracy. In this article we examine this democratising capacity. By adopting an abductive methodology, the article analyses a case of a public–common partnership, the Citizen Assets programme promoted by Barcelona en Comú in Barcelona, Spain. The research findings show that the Citizen Assets programme does have a democratising capacity. However, democratisation is not achieved exclusively through self-management, which itself needs to be democratised, but by integrating different modalities of democratisation into the policy process, namely co-production and democratic control. Theorising this integration as a ‘non-appropriable’ form of policy making, the article makes an original contribution to research on democratisation in the context of a specific new municipalism-inspired policy programme
Capacity building · Context (archaeology · Democracy · Democratization · General partnership · Political science · Politics · Public policy · Community Development and Social Impact · Law · Public Administration · Public Policy and Administration Research
A pharmaceutical commons? Producing alterity through public-common partnerships
How places are contesting the privatisation of local public services
Re-organizing for public value and reclaiming post-capitalist possibilities
Democratizing the state? Participatory budgeting and strategic selectivity in the Spanish new municipalism
Il malinteso dei beni comuni. La relazione tra politiche urbane dell'austerity e la prospettiva dell'amministrazione condivisa nel contesto torinese
Aportaciones de la economía social y solidaria a la transición ecosocial a partir de la gestión de la basura. Apuntes desde la experiencia de Traperos de Emaús Navarra
Scaling-up commons-led coproduction
Energy Commons During Crisis
We are more, but we understand each other less. Progress and constraints of PB as a strategy for democratic deepening in the emergence of ‘new municipalism’
Co-creation to measure what matters
Rethinking urban governance and mobility in Brazil
From movement to party
Democratic innovations
Accountability in the Shadow of Hierarchy
Analysing and Assessing Accountability
Deliberative Democracy
Critical Policy Studies
Open Democracy
Between coproduction and commons
Governmentality, the Local State, and the Commons
Introduction
Diagnosing Participation and Inclusion in Collective Decision-Making in the Commons
Generating ‘good enough’ evidenc for co-production
Facilitating coproduction
Urban governance and political change under a radical left government
What’s so new about New Municipalism
Progress in Human Geography
Social Accountability Between Consensus and Confrontation
Beyond the Local Trap
The caring city? A critical reflection on Barcelona’s municipal experiments in care and the commons
The commonification of the public under new municipalism
Politicising proximity
Strategies for a new municipalism
Accountability’
The Big Society and the ‘Mutualisation’ of Public Services
Self-Management in Yugoslavia and the Developing World
Democracy, Accountability, and Representation
Beyond Neoliberalism
Varieties of Participation in Public Services
Case Selection Techniques in Case Study Research
A future research agenda for transformational urban policy studies
Does a ‘Barcelona Model’ Really Exist? Periods, Territories and Actors in the Process of Urban Transformation
Between governance‐driven democratisation and democracy‐driven governance
Integrating coproduction theory into voluntary sector theories
Notes towards autonomous geographies
| Unique citing works | 13 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 6,5 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2026 (3) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 12 |