Suchergebnisse

How do political parties shape urban movements in developing countries? This paper examines struggles for urban inclusion in two informal settlements within Johannesburg: Thembelihle and Motsoaledi. I argue that the ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), fragmented and weakened these movements through four mechanisms: place-specific governance, electoral encouragement, co-optation, and fostering loyalty. Both responding to and prompting these mechanisms, activists in the two areas pursued divergent politics. Whereas activists in Thembelihle emphasized working-class solidarity and citywide opposition to the ANC, activists in Motsoaledi emphasized neighborhood solidarity and presented a narrower challenge to the ANC. Residents in both areas secured material concessions, but they failed to produce a unified and citywide movement. The two examples underscore the difficulty of building movements for urban inclusion when a single political party dominates civil society.

The article discusses the process of formation and transformation of urban movements in Poland. Conclusions are based on the data collected during the research project "Urban Social Movements in Poland" supported by the National Science Centre. For the requirements of the project was adopted a method of qualitative research using the techniques of in-depth narrative interviews, participant observations and secondary data analysis. The author conducted 30 in-depth interviews with leaders of urban movements from sixteen cities. The article describes the process of structuralization and the creation of the identity of the Polish urban movement and their role on the local political stage, stressing, in particular, their significant role as creatorsof a new discourse in Polish cities.

The article discusses the process of formation and transformation of urban movements in Poland. Conclusions are based on the data collected during the research project "Urban Social Movements in Poland" supported by the National Science Centre. For the requirements of the project was adopted a method of qualitative research using the techniques of in-depth narrative interviews, participant observations and secondary data analysis. The author conducted 30 in-depth interviews with leaders of urban movements from sixteen cities. The article describes the process of structuralization and the creation of the identity of the Polish urban movement and their role on the local political stage, stressing, in particular, their significant role as creators of a new discourse in Polish cities.

The American urban social movements of the 1960s and 70s constituted a heterogeneous mixture of tendencies. Given this mixture and the prevalence of material needs and distributive demands in it, and given the relatively open political opportunity structure of the U.S., the transition to a pragmatic and institutionalized form of community organizing and community economic development during the late 70s and early 80s is not difficult to explain. The transition from advocacy-style community organizations to effective CDCs was additionally encouraged by government programs, both on the local and, particularly under Carter, on the national level. This article describes and explains the process through which active community-based interest organization and representation has become supported and presupposed both in legislative negotiations and in the implementation of certain services, while also being channelled to adapt to the economic norm of the public-private partnership. Under current conditions, voluntarism and coproduction have come to shape the terrain—a qualitatively new terrain—on which the movements' goals have to be worked out.

Urban movements are nowadays a frequent example of civic activity. They are becoming an inseparable element of both contemporary democracy as well as local governments. Taking into consideration the fact of growing popularity of this kind of civic activity it is worth to analyze the specifics of this phenomena and possible future impact on local governments' policy. The aim of this article is to examine the urban movements' phenomena and their actual possible influence on local governments' policy directions.

Urban plans and projects that aim to initiate the redevelopment and gentrification of urban areas create social and ecological pressures on urban environments and thereby stimulate urban movements. These movements have a lifespan, which evolves in interaction with planning authorities under local or central governments and may be marked by institutionalization and co-optation, as well as fragmentation among the people involved in them. Fragmentations are usually based on conflicting individual and collective interests, but may also be the result of different political perspectives in groups. This article is based on a case study conducted in two adjacent gecekondu neighbourhoods of Istanbul, Gulsuyu and Gulensu, where urban politics have played an important role in efforts to resist plans for urban transformation. It shows that fragmentations are very likely to occur in urban movements during planning processes in a neoliberal era, owing to the different perspectives in the movement on what the just city is.