Enacting Citizenship and Solidarity - by Helge Schwiertz & Donatella Della Porta & Martin Bak Jørgensen & Mojca Pajnik & Sarah Schilliger

Book Synopsis

Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.

How are urban social movements engaging in local politics to tackle the multiple crises in Europe?

This timely volume explores how grassroots actors across eleven European cities forge new forms of solidarity and enact citizenship at local scales. Drawing on rich ethnographic research, it examines how activists and communities challenge neoliberal isolation and marginalization through collective practices, ranging from community kitchens to tenant organizing. Bridging research on migration, housing and care, the book investigates how everyday urban struggles are reshaping political practices and reimagining democracy. It offers essential insights for scholars and practitioners of social justice, citizenship and urban politics.

Review Quotes

'This inspiring collection of excellent essays meticulously documents how people across European cities are creating solidaristic, democratic and radical forms of citizenship as counter-movements to nationalism and authoritarianism. Empirically focusing on mid-size cities (e.g., Aalborg, Bern, Hamburg, Ljubljana and Palermo), it shows how these movements make everyday life political through mutual aid and care, horizontal and participatory organising, and alliances across diverse rights to the city, such as work, housing, health, migration and asylum. Theoretically, it demonstrates that building infrastructures of solidarity, generating affective bonds, and developing translocal connections create strong democratic communities.' Engin Isin, Queen Mary University of London

'This timely collection shows how fieldwork in the trenches of everyday urban struggles can reveal both fascinating and hope-inducing insight!' Margit Mayer, Free University Berlin

'This book examines local solidarity as a counterweight to isolation, which underpins right-wing and fascist forces - important and timely research!' Helen Schwenken, University of Osnabrück

'This is a groundbreaking work revealing, through the lens of everyday practice, how urban grassroots movements across Europe advance citizenship. Moving beyond protest, it charts a new political terrain where mutual aid and commoning forge powerful, transversal solidarities, relating to migrant rights, housing and care work. An essential, empirically rich read for understanding the future of urban democracy and collective action in an age of crisis.' Carl-Ulrik Schierup, Linköping University

'At a time of increasing urban fragmentation, unrest, and social division in much of the global North, this book offers a vitally important resource for understanding how our urban worlds are always-already being remade. Focusing on a wide range of expressions of collective agency in response to forces of privatisation, social isolation and urban precarity, this collection explores the forms of solidarity that exist in everyday urban life, from neighbourhood and community organizing to struggles over migration, housing and care. Offering detailed ethnographic explorations from across Europe, it challenges conventional thinking on citizenship and solidarity in uncertain times, pointing to the often-unnoticed practices through which power, place and belonging are navigated individually and collectively. This empirically rich and conceptually innovative text will be of interest to all those concerned with constructing pathways to urban solidarity and common cause.' Jonathan Darling, Durham University

About the Author

Donatella della Porta is Professor of Political Science at the Scuola Normale Superiore, Florence.

Martin Bak Jørgensen is Professor in Processes of Migration at Aalborg University.

Mojca Pajnik is Professor of Media and Communication at the University of Ljubljana, and Senior Researcher at The Peace Institute.

Helge Schwiertz is Acting Professor of Sociological Theory at the University of Hamburg.

Sarah Schilliger is Senior Researcher at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Gender Studies, University of Bern.