Contested Cities and Urban Activism

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvii

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2. Introduction

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Introductory Remarks and Overview

      • Ngai Ming Yip, Miguel Angel Martínez López, Xiaoyi Sun

      Pages 3-24

   3. Framing Urban Movements, Contesting Global Capitalism and Liberal Democracy

      • Miguel Angel Martínez López

      Pages 25-45

3. Changing Forms of Urban Activism

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 47-47

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   2. Housing Activism Against the Production of Ignorance: Some Lessons from the UK

      • Tom Slater

      Pages 49-71

   3. Urban Food Activism in Athens: Recovering More Autonomous Forms of Social Reproduction

      • Inés Morales-Bernardos

      Pages 73-98

   4. From Obedience to Resistance: Understanding Equal Rights to Education Movement as a Cultural Process

      • Anqi Liu

      Pages 99-120

4. Urban Activism—Activists and Their Networks

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 121-121

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   2. Has Urban Cycling Improved in Hong Kong? A Sociopolitical Analysis of Cycling Advocacy Activists’ Contributions and Dilemmas

      • Hongze Tan, Miguel Angel Martínez López

      Pages 123-146

   3. Urban Activism in Yogyakarta, Indonesia: Deprived and Discontented Citizens Demanding a More Just City

      • Sonia Roitman

      Pages 147-174

   4. From the Squatters’ Movement to Housing Activism in Spain: Identities, Tactics and Political Orientation

      • Robert González

      Pages 175-197

   5. Squatted Social Centres Activists and ‘Locally Unwanted Land Use’ Movements in Italy: A Comparative Analysis Between Two Case Studies

      • Gianni Piazza, Federica Frazzetta

      Pages 199-225

5. Urban Activism—Citizenship and Right to the City

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 227-227

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   2. ‘We Are Quality Citizens of Bangkok Too’: Urban Activism in Bangkok During the 2011 Floods

      • Danny Marks

      Pages 229-252

   3. The Evolution of Housing Rights Activism in South Korea

      • Seon Young Lee

      Pages 253-273

   4. The Squatters’ and Tenants’ Movement in Buenos Aires. A Vindication of Centrality and the Self-Managed Production of Space

      • Ibán Díaz-Parra

      Pages 275-296

6. Back Matter

   Pages 297-313

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This edited volume advances our understanding of urban activism beyond the social movement theorization dominated by thesis of political opportunity structure and resource mobilization, as well as by research based on experience from the global north. Covering a diversity of urban actions from a broad range of countries in both hemispheres as well as the global north and global south, this unique collection notably focuses on non-institutionalised or localised urban actions that have the potential to bring about radical structural transformation of the urban system and also addresses actions in authoritarian regimes that are too sensitive to call themselves “movement”. It addresses localized issues cut off from international movements such as collective consumption issues, like clean water, basic shelter, actions against displacement or proper venues for street vendors, and argues that the integration of the actions in cities in the global south with the specificity of their local social and political environment is as pivotal as their connection with global movement networks or international NGOs. A key read for researchers and policy makers cutting across the fields of urban sociology, political science, public policy, geography, regional studies and housing studies, this text provides an interdisciplinary and international perspective on 21st century urban activism in the global north and south.

• Urban Activism in the Global South
• Local Specificity and Urban Activism
• Urban Activism in Transitional Economies
• China’s Changing Governance and Social Activism
• Rights to Education in Cities
• Urban Studies and Health
• Social Movement and Nuclear Power in Taiwan
• Housing Activism and Collective Action
• City Squatting and Urban Action
• Tourism and Contested Urbanisation
• urban geography and urbanism

“A fantastic collection of authors and chapters updating classic theoretical frameworks to the complex and variegated nature of collective action in cities around the world.” (Sara Gonzalez, Associate Professor, University of Leeds, UK)

“This book deals with urban activism from a truly international and non-Eurocentric perspective; for this reason, it is both an unusual and highly valuable contribution.” (Marcelo Lopes de Souza, Professor of Geography, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)

• City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong

  Ngai Ming Yip

• Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

  Miguel Angel Martínez López

• Fudan University, Shanghai, China

  Xiaoyi Sun

Ngai Ming Yip is Professor at the Department of Public Policy, City University of Hong Kong. His research focuses on housing activism as well as movement networks of homeowner activists in China and has published an edited volume entitled Neighbourhood Governance in Urban China (2014).

 

Miguel Angel Martínez López is Professor of Housing and Urban Sociology at the IBF (Institute for Housing and Urban Research), Uppsala University, Sweden. A sociologist and political scientist, his academic work deals with urban movements, anti-neoliberal struggles, autonomous social movements, citizen participation, urban sociology and urban politics.

 

Xiaoyi Sun is an Assistant Professor at School of International Relations and Public Affairs, Fudan University, China. Her research focuses on environmental politics, contentious politics, and urban governance in China. 

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