Reclaiming Democracy in Cities

Gülçin Balamir Coşkun is an Associate Professor of Political Science. She is currently working as one of the senior research associates of the project “Judicial autonomy under authoritarian attack” at the Institut für Sozialwissenschaften, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Her research focuses on authoritarianism, judicial independence, rule of law, media capture, and digital censorship. Tuba İnal-Çekiç is an Associate Professor of Urban Studies and a research fellow at the Center for Comparative Research on Democracy, Humboldt University Berlin. Her research interests are focused on authoritarian urbanism and urban movements from a participatory governance perspective. Her work delves into understanding the complexities of urban dynamics and exploring avenues for inclusive and participatory practices. Ertuğ Tombuş is a Senior Research Associate at the Department of Social Sciences, Humboldt University Berlin, and the executive director of the Center for Comparative Research on Democracy. His primary research areas are democratic theory, critical theory, politics and law, constitutional politics, and populism.

Part I: Rethinking democracy from the local 1. The Dialectic of Urban Democracy: The Post-Democratic or the Democratizing City 2. What Kind of Democratic Project Is the “City”? And What Does the New Municipalism Want to Do with It? 3. The Idea of a Democratic City: An Attempt at Typology Part II: Local Governance and Participatory Practices 4. Practices of Inclusive Planning and Beyond: Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and its Vision for 2050 5. The Role of Civic Initiatives and NGOs in the Democratization of the Public Sphere via Participatory Planning Tools: Case Study of the Bashkortostan Region, Russian 6. How do Free Cities Bring Their Citizens Back to Politics? Comparing Democratic Innovations in Budapest and Warsaw Part III: Cities as sites of opposition against authoritarian governments: Opportunities and Challenges 7. Metropolitan Politics and Administration of Hegemonic and Counter-Hegemonic Projects in Istanbul 8. Disempowerment and Attempts of Self-empowerment: The case of Istanbul municipality 9. New Municipalism in the Global South: The Antinomies of Kurdish Municipalism Part IV: Solidarity, Alliances and Mobilization at the Local Level 10. Civil Society Practice for Housing Refugees in Vienna as a Guidepost for a Solidarity-Based Planning Concept 11. The Impact of Urban Solidarity Networks on Local Governance: Exercising Urban Democracy in Izmir, Turkey 12. From Place of Speculation to Space of Resistance: Transforming Urban Politics on Urban Redevelopment Projects in Seoul 13. Analysis of City Diplomacy in De-democratizing States: The Case of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality