De la rue à la mairie
From turbulent squats organised to defend the right to housing to the city hall: such is the unusual political trajectory of Ada Colau. Leading a citizens’ platform bringing together political newcomers, social movements and left-wing parties, the activist became Barcelona’s first female mayor in 2015. Municipalism, promoted by the citizen coalition Barcelona en Comú, seeks not only to take power at the local level but also to transform institutions from within, fostering genuine participation in public affairs.
As municipalist projects and citizen lists multiply—particularly in France—what lessons can be drawn from this singular political laboratory? How did former squatters come to govern Spain’s second-largest city? Drawing on extensive ethnographic research, this book offers an in-depth analysis of municipalism, examining housing rights movements in Barcelona, the experience of former activists within the municipal government, and the interactions between these two dynamics.
Beyond the case of Barcelona, the book aims above all to advance concrete strategic proposals for the construction of 'social municipalism' as an alternative to neoliberalism and state-centred sovereignty, capable of revitalising the democratic imagination.
David Hamou holds a PhD in sociology from the University of Paris Nanterre. His research focuses on the commons, new forms of democracy, urban social movements and non-state institutions. He has published his doctoral thesis on the new synergies between housing rights movements and public institutions in the context of the municipalist experiment in Barcelona. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Brasília, Brazil, and a member of Casa Comum ('Common House'), a citizen-led initiative for democratic reconstruction in the post-Bolsonaro era.
