Research Committee 21 Conference of the International Sociological Association
“The politics and spaces of encounters: advancing dialogues between and within the Global North and the Global South”
July 24th to 26th, 2014
Santiago, Chile

New municipalism emerged as an effort to give a global collective identity to local initiatives generally born out of traditional institutions to promote a radical urban political imagination in the face of political distrust, rising social inequalities, and cuts to public spending (Russell, 2019; Thompson, 2021). The electoral challenge to gain executive and legislative power in city halls was, in many cases, a sequence to the struggle of collective mobilisation that occupied streets and squares around the world, particularly in cities in Europe and Latin America.

Nevertheless, the context of new municipalism politics in the North can differ from the South (Arpini et al, 2023) beyond shared principles such as citizen-based deliberation, inclusive spaces for marginalised subjectivities, or the feminization of politics. While in European cities it was contextualised against postpolitics and the deepening of neoliberal policies following the 2008 financial crisis, in Latin America it has been linked with long-term structural deprivations, territorial disputes and struggles for radical democracy that has delivered important progressive policies, such as Porto Alegre’s Participatory Budgeting (Minuchin & Maino, 2023; Toro & Orozco, 2023).

In a context of ongoing and evolving neoliberal extractive practices, it has been argued that the new municipalism movement have either entered a period of crisis (Roth et al, 2023), particularly after Spanish experiences, or expanded the possibilities for progressive politics, as seen in Latin American cases that are enduring the test of time, such as the Recoleta municipality in Santiago and Valparaíso in Chile, as well as Rosario in Argentina (Caimanque & López-Morales, 2023; Silvestre & López-Fittipaldi, 2023).

Conveners: Gabriel Silvestre and Rodrigo Caimanque

July 26th, 09:00 – 11:00:

• Mara Ferreri and Lorenzo Vidal on “Public cooperative housing policy in municipalist Barcelona”
• Yvonne Yen Liu, Solidarity Research Center on “The Municipalist Moment in Los Angeles”
• Mirtha Lorena del Castillo Durand on “Fragmented urban governance, new municipalism, and gentrification in Latin America”
• Daniel Motta and Sidney Bernardini on “A world of many worlds, a city of many cities”
• Firat Genc on “Scalar politics in contested cities”

Discussant: George Ygarza, Solidarity Research Center

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Our panel will explore programs, practices, and experimentations in the power-building models we are constructing from below. Central to the question of movement building is that of how we can organize ourselves democratically, without coercion, and power-hoarding, and with the particularities of gender, race, ability, and other forms of domination in mind. Our presentations will explore many aspects of direct democratic governance including collective decision-making, equitable management of resources, addressing interpersonal and structural conflict resolution, emergent contradictions of building and sustaining radical democratic institutions, and requisite approaches to resolve them. Our presentations are connected with a common thread of anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist approaches seeking to address the sociopolitical, economic, and ecological crises of our time.

Speakers include:

• Alison Chopel, Universidad de Puerto Rico
• Ndindi Kitonga, Palms Unhoused Mutual Aid
• Kermit O, abolitionist researcher and writer
• Yvonne Yen Liu, Solidarity Research Center

We will be presenting this panel at the Ostrom Workshop at Indiana University in Bloomington, IN on Thursday, June 20th 2024 from 2:45 PM to 4:15 PM ET. We are making our panel available for people to attend virtually by livestream.

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You are invited to the panel by Solidarity Research Center on the Student Intifada, on Wednesday, May 15th 2024 at 9:00 AM PDT/11:00 AM CDT/12:00 PM EDT.

On Nakba Day, we will convene a panel discussion on the liberated zones emerging on campuses across the nation and how we can use the momentum to push for boycott, divestment, and sanctions of the Israeli-US genocide machine to free Palestine, from the river to the sea.

Speakers include:

• Mark Rudd, former member of Students for a Democratic Society and Weather Underground
• Maryam Alwan, Students for Justice in Palestine at Columbia University
• Omar Barghouti, co-founder of Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions movement for Palestinian rights
• Soph Askanase, Jewish Voices for Peace at Barnard College

Facilitated by Yvonne Yen Liu, Solidarity Research Center

Date: Wednesday, May 15th 2024
Time: 9:00 to 10:30 AM PDT/11:00  AM to 12:30 PM CDT/12:00 PM to 1:30 PM EDT

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Fractures are widening. In an age of increasing polarization and division, how can we build bridges across lines of difference and strengthen solidarity? What strategies do we need to sustain connections across the growing chasms of ideology, experience, power, and privilege? Join us as we explore the challenges and opportunities of building solidarity in our current social and political climate.

WHO: This series is for anyone interested in learning more about solidarity practice and resources.

PANELISTS

• Darakshan Raja, Muslims for Just Futures
• Woods Ervin, Critical Resistance
• Xochitl Bervera, Near Future Farms
• Rachael Lorenzo, Indigenous Women Rising
• Yvonne Yen Liu, Solidarity Research Center

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You are invited to the third panel of the Municipalism Learning Series on Assembly, on Thursday, 11/30/23 at 1:00 PM PT/3:00 PM CT/4:00 PM ET.

We have been gathering together since time immemorial to deliberate on problems we face, identify possible solutions, and decide what we do next. During times of crisis, we assemble to meet our collective needs when the state and market fail us. The assembly is an emergent expression of popular power in social movements, from Occupy to radical municipalism. On the 24th anniversary of the Battle of Seattle, we convene to explore the horizontal and decentralized form of the assembly, its use by the multitude, and its promise for dual power strategy.

Date: Thursday, November 30th 2023
Time: 1:00 to 2:30 PM PT/3:00 to 4:30 PM CT/4:00 to 5:30 PM ET

Panelists:

DENZEL CALDWELL, Black Nashville Assembly
EDGAR FRANKS, Familias Unidas Por La Justicia
MARISA HOLMES, Occupy Wall Street
MICHAEL HARDT, Author of Assembly with Antonio Negri

Facilitator:

YVONNE YEN LIU, Los Angeles Peoples Movement Assembly

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Los Angeles for All (a project of Solidarity Research Center) invites you to a conversation on Occupy Wall Street and its legacy for revolutionary movements on Saturday, 8/12/23 at 7:30 PM at the Robinson Space.

ASSEMBLIES ACROSS THE COASTS

Speakers include Marisa Holmes of Occupy Wall Street, Michael Novick from Occupy Los Angeles, Yvonne Yen Liu from Los Angeles People’s Movement Assembly

Together, we will collectively explore questions, such as:

• Occupy was a broad introduction to the practice of direct democracy for many folks. How do we translate that into daily life and not just revolutionary moments?
• What are lessons learned from Occupy for the #hotlaborsummer and the strike wave in Los Angeles right now?
• What is the role and relationship of insurgent movements with established nonprofits and trade unions?

The flow of the evening includes:

1. Initial framing talks by speakers (8 minutes each)
2. Small discussion groups (45 minutes)
3. Break (10 minutes)
4. Report back (40 minutes)
5. Closing (10 minutes)

Refreshments will be available for a sliding scale donation.

Learn More

Date: Monday, 7/24/23
Time: 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Location: Lehrer Architects, 2140 Hyperion Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90027

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Leonora Camner (Abundant Housing LA and Public Democracy LA), Yvonne Yen Liu (Solidarity Research Center and Los Angeles For All), and Laura Ryan (The Berggruen Institute) with moderator, comedian and disability advocate, Keisha Zollar (Stephen Colbert Presents: Tooning Out the News) come together to discuss civic assemblies and the possibilities and realities of deliberative governments and what those could look like in Los Angeles today.

Come network over refreshments with other Angelenos who are interested in creating breakthroughs, building participation in, and getting we the people involved in governing our city!

Learn more:
What is a civic assembly?

Sometimes referred to as a citizens assembly, sortition, or deliberative democracy, a civic assembly is similar to jury duty for policy. Its members form a representative cross-section of the public, and are provided with time, resources and a broad range of viewpoints to learn deeply about an issue. (Wikipedia)

Videos:

• TED: What if we replaced politicians with everyday people?
• Citizens, Assemble! Deliberative Democracy in 3 Minutes

The Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) Movement: Perspectives from the U.S., Spain and Latin America

Dr. Santiago Eizaguirre Anglada, Yvonne Yen Liu, Euclides Mance, & Dr. Eric Griego Montoya

Thursday, April 13, 2023 | 12:00 pm – 01:30 pm

Virtual – Zoom

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The Latin American and Iberian Institute is pleased to host this virtual panel, The Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) Movement: Perspectives from the U.S., Spain and Latin America, with the following guests:

SSE and Municipalism in Europe: The Barcelona Experience with Local Economic Democracy
Dr. Santiago Eizaguirre Anglada, Department of Sociology and Creativity, Innovation and Urban Transformation, University of Barcelona

SSE in Latin America: Solidarity Economic Circuits and SSE Networks
Euclides Mance, Federal University of ABC, Brazil

SSE in the United States: Progress and Challenges
Yvonne Yen Liu, Research Director, Solidarity Research Center

Moderator: Dr. Eric Griego Montoya, Visiting Scholar, LAII and Associate Chief of Staff for Policy, City of Albuquerque

Speaker Bios:

Santiago Eizaguirre Anglada
Santiago Eizaguirre Anglada is a tenure-track elegible lecturer at the Department of Sociology of the University of Barcelona specialized in the area of social change and development. His research focuses on social innovation and democratic governance, giving special attention to territorial development, transformative economies and citizenship initiatives overcoming social exclusion. This includes strategic analysis and policy recommendations on urban educating environments, democratic innovation and solidarity-based economies. He has done research stays at the Centre de Recherche sur les Innovations Sociales (CRISES) in the Université du Québec à Montréal (2018); the Institut de Govern i Polítiques Públiques from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (2016), or the Department of Architecture at KU Leuven (2013). His teaching activities include economic geography, sociology of education and conflicts and social problems, in different university degrees and learning environments.

Euclides André Mance
He has a degree in Philosophy from the Federal University of Paraná – UFPR (1987), specialization in Philosophical Anthropology (UFPR – 1990) and a Masters in Education (UFPR -1999). He is a PhD student in Philosophy at UFABC. He was professor of Philosophy of Science, Logic and Latin American Philosophy at higher education institutions in Brazil (1987-2003), among them the UFPR. He created the Solidarius Platform (2006), which provides I.T. solutions for the organization and operation of Solidarity Economic Circuits and Collaborative Networks of Solidarity Economy. He has worked as a consultant in projects of UNESCO (2004) and FAO (2005-2006). He is a member of the General Coordination of the Institute of Philosophy of Liberation and Executive Coordinator of Solidarius Brazil. He has experience in the areas of Philosophy, Education and Economy, working mainly in the following themes: philosophy of liberation, network theory, liberation economy, solidarity economy and information technology. www.euclidesmance.net

Yvonne Yen Liu
Yvonne is the co-founder and research director at Solidarity Research Center. She is based in Los Angeles, California, where the sun smiles on her every day. Although a native of NYC, she and the city have broken up and went their separate ways. She is a practitioner of research justice with over 20 years of being a nerd for racial and social justice organizations. Yvonne serves on the boards of the U.S. Solidarity Economy Network and Policy Advocates for Sustainable Economies. She teaches in the gender studies department at California State University, Los Angeles. Yvonne has a BA in cultural anthropology from Columbia University and a MA in sociology from the CUNY Graduate Center, where she pursued a PhD.

Eric Griego Montoya
For the past three decades Eric has worked as an instructor, researcher, analyst and policy maker on applied public policy issues ranging from economic development to
early childhood education at the local, state, national and international level. From 2014-2020 he was a research fellow at the Center for Social Policy (formerly the Center for Health Policy) at the University of New Mexico, where his teaching and research focused on sustainable economic development, social capital and public policy. He holds a bachelor’s degree in government and journalism from New Mexico State University, a master’s in public management from the University of Maryland, and a master’s and doctorate in political science from the University of New Mexico. He currently serves as Associate Chief of Staff for Policy in Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller’s office, where he leads the Administration’s policy, legislative and government affairs efforts. He was recently selected as a Fulbright Scholar and beginning in the Fall of 2023 he will be a Visiting Researcher and at the Creativity Innovation and Urban Transformation group at the University of Barcelona.

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