Global Remunicipalisation

Funded by the European Research Council (ERC), the ongoing, six-year research project titled “Global Remunicipalisation and the Post-Neoliberal Turn” (GLOBALMUN) is based at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, United Kingdom. Since January 2019, the project team has been undertaking a transnational comparative case study investigating the phenomenon of remunicipalisation.

What is 'remunicipalisation'?

Remunicipalisation refers to a global trend since 2000 for cities to take formerly privatised assets, infrastructure and services back into public ownership. As such, it marks a significant departure in existing urban governance processes, signalling a decisive shift against the dominant form of neoliberalism that has held sway since the 1980s.

The research advances the distinctive thesis that remuniciplisation represents a critical moment in the demise of neoliberalism, signifying a shift towards a post-neoliberal urban governance regime. This has fundamental implications for cities in terms of how they are managed, who is involved and who benefits from urban development processes, with the re-introduction of more state-driven and potentially more democratic public forms.

Project aims and objectives

The overarching aim of the research is to critically interrogate remunicipalisation and its implications for an emergent post-neoliberal urbanism. To address this aim, the project has three objectives:

• to develop a typology and conceptualisation of remunicipalisation that captures its diverse spatial, political and social forms,
• to assess whether remunicipalisation leads to more progressive forms of state and public action,
• and, to critically evaluate the democratic potential of the new forms of municipal public ownership.

Project methods

The research employs a multi-method transnational comparative analysis over 6 years, which involves an extensive global survey element, a comparative analysis (across Europe, Latin America and the US), and a multi-sited ethnographic phase of individual remunicipalisation case studies in each country.