Urban Grassroots Movements in Central and Eastern Europe

"If you want to learn about the resurgence of urban activism in CEE countries and understand their distinctive features, frames, and practices, seek no longer. This volume brings together excellent case studies, including local versions of Right to the City activism, revealing how these varied mobilisations are uniquely shaped by a state-socialist past and neoliberalising present. In explicating the social meaning of urban activism in the CEE context, the book opens up possibilities for innovative theorising on urban movements." – Margit Mayer, Center for Metropolitan Studies, TU Berlin, Germany

"Urban Grassroots Movements in Central and Eastern Europe takes on new constituencies previously left out of the literature: bicyclists in Belgrade, the elderly in Ukraine, car drivers in Kaliningrad, tenants in Poland, youth in Vilnius, and protectors of architectural heritage in Bucharest. It is also not confined to those who self-identify as undertaking political actions, as many of these newly activated groups of citizens see their efforts – ranging from guarding dachas, street performances, Critical Mass rides and protecting public spaces from privatised development – as apolitical. The result is a fuller picture of the ways in which citizens in the region express their interests to political elites, in contrast to previous views of atomised and distrustful citizens and weak and anemic civil societies measured in numbers of formally registered NGOs. Jacobsson and colleagues’ work is an overdue breath of fresh air to the field." – Merrill Sovner. Eastern European Politics

"Urban Grassroots Movements in Central and Eastern Europe is not important only for scholars interested in social movements, but provides a good starting point for urban studies and civil society studies scholars who are interested in the post-socialist landscape in a region characterized by rapid economic (neo)liberalization, profound state reforms and abrupt transnational integrations. The analyses provided in this volume offer new understandings of how social actors re-think and re-gain political (collective) agency in postsocialist urban spaces that are often negatively affected by privatization and marketization, neoliberal ideology and institutions, urban restructuring, and the general incapacity of public authorities to meet the daily needs of ordinary citizens." – Interface: A journal for and about social movements