Papers > By author > Tiedemann Norma

The contribution looks at the so-called New Municipalisms in the European (semi-)periphery, arguing that the constellation in which this hybrid strategy between institution and movement at the local level rises is an aggravating conflict between democracy and capitalism. The 2007/08 crisis in Europe led to a profound re-arrangement of the relationship between movements and parties, especially on the European fringes, where the contradictions of democratic capitalism are particularly pronounced and movement parties attempted to integrate contentious dynamics ‘from above'. Simultaneously, the attack on the institutions was formulated from below, from the cities – municipalist platforms represent the decision to directly engage in the arena of neoliberalized local state apparatuses. In the momentum of the Spanish lists' successes, also the post-Yugoslav region witnessed the confluence of protests into municipalist platforms: Zagreb je NAŠ! and Ne Davimo Beograd. They confront an authoritarian neoliberalism, where accumulation imperatives integrated into neoliberal statehood shape urban life and the possibilities for collective self-determination, i.e. democracy. Their struggles are thus directed at defending, re-articulating and expanding the controversial notion of common goods.