Suchergebnisse

In recent years, the concept of 'urban citizenship' has become an important reference for cities and municipalities positioning themselves in the context of the European border and migration regime. However, the reference often falls short. Especially in the case of urban policies focusing on 'diversity', the affinity to neoliberal ideas of citizenship is noticeable. The article analyses the European 'Intercultural Cities Programme' (ICC), in which more than 100 cities participate, as an example for this trend. Here, the meaning of citizenship is being shifted

Over the past 25 years, Berlin has undergone a rapid process of neoliberalization. This article argues that the city's transformation has been heavily crisis-driven and fueled by a strong political agenda. Two watershed events are crucial for an in-depth understanding of the dynamics at work: The collapse of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in 1989, followed by a neo-conservative and nationalist, entrepreneurial strategy for the reunified German Capital; and the financial crisis of 2001, which brought a coalition between Social-Democrats and Socialists into power that strongly emphasized Berlin's (sub-)cultural and cosmopolitan identity, but effectively put the city on a fierce austerity track.

"Researcher interested in social movements as well as political commentators agree that we have been witnessing a historically-specific cycle of global mobilizations since 2011. However, it seems much less clear what exactly political movements and uprising such as the Arab Spring, the European protests against austerity policies, and the US-Occupy movement have in common. This article takes the massive presence of movements in public spaces as a point of departure, and analyzes the global cycle of protests through an urban lense. Arguing that the process of neo-liberalization, the austerity measures aiming at the management of the current crisis, and people's responses on the streets' are strongly articulated through urban space, the article discusses similarities and differences between movements in various regional contexts." (author's abstract)