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How can new municipalism develop a progressive localism and forge translocal solidarities? This article considers municipalism as a form of progressive localism, which on the one hand connects the local and the global through translocal solidarity, and on the other scales-up and becomes an alternative way of doing politics beyond the state. The main focus is on citizens' candidatures in Spain, which have not been linked in the traditional way to a national party, and in particular on Barcelona en Comú and Barcelona mayor Ada Colau. It discusses the question of 'everyday sovereignties' - over issues such as control of water supply, energy, housing. These are areas where cities can lead change. It also discusses cities of refuge and Barcelona's Refuge City Plan, which involves civil society in welcoming refugees to the city; and the links made through the mapping of municipalisms in the Atlas of Change and the launch of Fearless Cities.

In a world order without a sole hegemon, the dialectic relationship between the main global players and emerging powers enables nation-states to strategically favor their national interests as well as mutually beneficial alliances, whilst the multipolar world becomes strengthened. This article draws on this context of 'interdependent hegemony' to explore the existing relationship between Venezuela, as a swing state, and China, as one of the Big Three global powers. Particularly, I focus on Venezuelan efforts to develop, at the domestic and regional level, a counterhegemonic political project against the US and how China is considered a valuable ally to acquire more independence. However, this situation of interdependence can paradoxically lead to a new kind of dependence, in this case on China. To analyze these relations, I propose a conceptual framework consisting of three dimensions: 1) the international positioning towards other Northern and Southern countries and whether the relationship is conceived in terms of conflict or cooperation; 2) the economic model and how it conditions the relationship between countries and whether relationships or dependence are generated; and 3) the development of a political and economic model which can inspire or be followed by other countries. Although China's influence and increasing power in Venezuela is unquestionable in economic terms, the Venezuelan government uses its agreements with China strategically to legitimate its policies, in the name of a South-socialist alternative, and to reaffirm its international positioning.

Udgivelsesdato: September ; In 2007, Subcomandante Marcos gives a series of seven conferences with the common title 'Nor the Centre, Nor the Periphery' about the zapatista struggle and the antisystemic movements. Even though the popularity and the repercussion of the zapatista movement is decreasing, Marcos makes an effort to combine theoretical reflections with practical experiences in order to promote an alternative discourse, opposed to the capitalist system. In this article, we consider texts to be the Third Space, that is, a place for questioning the dominant discourse, through the rejection of binary oppositions and the articulation of difference. In order to create this space, it is necessary to include different voices and social practices which alter the existing conventions and significations. Therefore, intertextuality and interdiscursivity are resources used to constitute a hybrid text which includes a plurality of identities and transgresses the norms which condition the textual production. Marcos combines several genres, such as argumentation, narration or dialogue, to offer other approaches to political discourse and the inclusion of certain external voices with the objective of strengthening a collective discourse.

Good patriots La voluntad de la Unión Europea de crear un enfoque global y comprehensivo sobre la inmigración se basa en una concepción positiva de la misma y en una serie de directivas y mecanismos para abordarla. No obstante, la creación de una inmigración positiva se logra mediante el establecimiento de fronteras discursivas que delimitan qué tipo de inmigración es deseada, y puede formar parte, por tanto, del espacio político, y qué tipo de inmigración queda excluida. Las categorías legal e ilegal son articuladas dentro de la formación hegemónica europea. La significación de la inmigración legal se vincula al discurso de la competitividad económica y se reduce exclusivamente a la mano de obra cualificada, mientras que la inmigración ilegal es combatida desde el punto de vista policial en un intento por delimitar las fronteras internas y externas. La delimitación de un tipo de inmigración adecuado para el modelo europeo tiene, además, consecuencias sobre las políticas de integración y los valores predominantes dentro de los Estados nación. ; Good patriots The objective of the European Union to create a global and comprehensive approach to immigration is based on a positive notion of immigration and a number of directives and mechanisms to handle it. However, the creation of a positive immigration is achieved through the establishment of discursive frontiers delimiting which kind of immigration is desirable, and could potentially become part of the political space, and which kind of immigration is excluded. The categories 'legal' and 'illegal' are articulated within the European hegemonic formation. The signification of legal immigration is related to the discourse on economic competitiveness and is reduced exclusively to qualified labour whereas illegal immigration is combated from a police oriented point of view in an effort to delimit the internal and external frontiers. Furthermore, the delimitation of an adequate type of immigration for the European model has a series of consequences for the integration policies and the predominant values within the nation-states.

In 2000, the Popular Party (PP, the conservative party) won the elections reaching absolute majority, unlike 1995 when they obtained simple majority and they had to negotiate with the Basque and Catalan nationalist parties to get approval of some of their politics. However these agreements never embedded a culture of dialogue and the conflicts became more accentuated at the end of their first term (Tusell, 2000: 239). The Spanish president, José María Aznar, interpreted the results as a big electoral support for his project and started a new orientation in some areas such as the relation with nationalism. The division between the Basque nationalist party (PNV) and PP increased after all the nationalist parties (including Herri Batasuna, the radical left party close to the terrorist group, ETA) pretended to develop a political frame, that would contribute to reaching freedom, while the two biggest national parties, PP and Partido Socialista (PSOE, social democrats) agreed to fight against terrorism and the nationalist environment together. In that context, Aznar undertook the definition of the nation maintaining this division and tried to find a way of formulating Spanish nationalism and getting some accept by the citizens. In this paper I will examine the discursive formation constituted by PP to redefine the Spanish nationalism using the idea of constitutional patriotism, which emanates from the academic debate, in competition with the social democrat party, that aspires also to apply this signifier to establish their own project and collaborate with the nationalist parties, who are against the traditional conception of Spanish nationalism. In order to analyse this issue I will use discourse theory, especially as it has been conceived by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. I will show the political implications as the result of the fixation of a new consensus and how the consensus is constituted against other formations and therefore it covers up a kind of particularism, although it assumes the form of national or universal interest.

The so-called 'refugee crisis' provoked a wave of solidarity movements across Europe. These movements contrasted with attitudes of rejection against refugees from almost all EU member states and a lack of coordinated and satisfactory response from the EU as an institution. The growth of the solidarity movement entails backlash of nationalized identities, while the resistance of the member states to accept refugees represents the failure of the cosmopolitan view attached to the EU. In the article, we argue that the European solidarity movement shapes a new kind of cosmopolitanism: cosmopolitanism from below, which fosters an inclusionary universalism, which is both critical and conflictual. The urban scale thus becomes the place to locally articulate inclusive communities where solidarity bonds and coexistence prevail before national borders and cosmopolitan imaginaries about welcoming, human rights, and the universal political community are enhanced. We use the case of Barcelona to provide a concrete example of intersections between civil society and a municipal government. We relate this discussion to ongoing debates about 'sanctuary cities' and solidarity cities and discuss how urban solidarities can have a transformative role at the city level. Furthermore, we discuss how practices on the scale of the city are up-scaled and used to forge trans-local solidarities and city networks.

La denominada «crisis de refugiados» provocó una ola de movimientos solidarios a lo largo de Europa que contrastaron con las actitudes de rechazo en contra de los refugiados por parte de casi todos los Estados miembros de la Unión Europea (ue), aunado a la falta de respuestas coordinadas y satisfactorias de la propia ue como institución. Mientras la primera postura desencadenó reacciones violentas de identidades nacionalizadas, la segunda representó el fracaso de una visión cosmopolita ligada a la ue. Argumentamos que el movimiento europeo de solidaridad moldea una nueva forma de cosmopolitismo: uno desde abajo que promueve un universalismo de inclusión tanto crítico como conflictual. Los espacios urbanos, por ende, se convierten en un lugar para articular localmente comunidades inclusivas, donde prevalecen y se mejoran los lazos de solidaridad y coexistencia ante las fronteras nacionales y los imaginarios cosmopolitas relativos a la acogida, los derechos humanos y la comunidad política universal. La aludida discusión la relacionamos con debates en curso acerca de ciudades santuario y ciudades solidarias, además analizamos la función transformativa que pueden tener las solidaridades urbanas en el nivel ciudad. Empleamos el caso de Barcelona para proveer un ejemplo concreto que muestre una intersección entre la sociedad civil y el gobierno municipal. En adición, enfatizamos cómo las prácticas en el nivel ciudad aumentan y se utilizan para forjar solidaridades translocales y establecer conexiones entre ciudades. ; The so-called «refugee crisis» provoked a wave of solidarity movements across Europe.These movements contrasted with attitudes of rejection against refugees from almost all eu member states and the lack of coordinated and satisfactory response from the eu as an institution.Whilst the first position entails backlash of nationalized identities, the latter represents the failure of a cosmopolitan view attached to the eu. We argue that the European solidarity movement shapes a new kind of cosmopolitanism: a cosmopolitanism from below which fosters an inclusionary universalism, which is both critical and conflictual. Urban spaces thus become the place to locally articulate inclusive communities where solidarity bonds and coexistence prevail before national borders and cosmopolitan imaginaries about welcoming, human rights and the universalpolitical community are enhanced. We relate these discussions to ongoing debates about sanctuary cities and solidarity cities and discuss how urban solidarities can have a transformative role at the city level. We use the case of Barcelona to provide a concrete example of intersections between civil society and a municipal government. Furthermore, we discuss how practices on the scale of the city are up-scaled and used to forge trans-local solidarities and city networks.

In Politics of Dissent the framework for analysing politics of dissent is outlined. The outlined framework problematizes the conventional understandings of dissent as something characterising individual historical figures. The chapter provides both a theoretical underpinning of dissent as well as an approach to investigate the current contestations taking place on a global level. Politics of dissent entails the questioning of consensus. It conceptualises dissent as a collective process taking place on everyday level. It conceptualises moments of dissent. Finally it investigates the emergent institutions of dissent. That is the creation of new institutions or the renewal of the existing ones.

The Chilean students' rebellion emerged in 2011 within the wave of global protests. Even though it is an organized movement, with roots in a specific historical context, it shares with the global movement the use of new media technologies, the appropriation of public spaces, and the concern for democracy and equality. The movement deploys flexible forms of organization and mobilization such as flash mobs, in the case analyzed in this article, the GenkiDama for Education. The students create a narrative based on the famous Manga series Dragon Ball Z to reframe the conflict between students and government. As Manga fans, they open up participation to other less politically defined identities. The flash mob moment works as a communicative event in which the narrative is put into place and strengthens a sense of community in the streets of Santiago de Chile. To analyze the connections between the fictional narrative of Manga and the use of the public space, we draw on Michel de Certeau's theory on spatial practices and the function of stories and place/space. Spatial practices during the flash mob challenge the social and spatial order in order to represent a symbolic victory of the students over the political system. Adapted from the source document.