New municipalism in action or urban neoliberalisation reloaded? An analysis of governance change, stability and path dependence in Madrid (2015–2019)

Abstract

Local politics in Spain has triggered iconic shifts over the last few years, and the electoral success of new ‘movement parties’ in particular has dramatically challenged the political establishment. Between 2015 and 2019, many municipalities – including, crucially, the two biggest cities, Madrid and Barcelona – were governed by coalitions originating from anti-austerity, anti-eviction and pro-democracy struggles. This has significantly affected hegemonic and widely normalised discourses supporting the neoliberalisation of urban politics, and to some extent has also prompted novel governance approaches. Based on empirical research undertaken with local councillors, officials, consultants and activists, the article develops an in-depth analysis of governance transformations in the Spanish capital of Madrid. By doing so, it evaluates the ambiguities and contradictions that the government coalition Ahora Madrid was facing during the 2015–2019 legislative term. The debate stimulates critical reflections for academics, practitioners and movements on the transformative capacities that new municipalisms may enact, as well as the constraints faced by established multi-level urban governance regimes.

Introduction: Anti-politics, austerity and spaces of politicisation

“…The new municipalism raises the prospect of a progressive politicisation and democratisation of the “urban”, though detailed reflection on the contingencies and achievements of projects is still emerging, such as Janoschka and Mota (2020) on the Madrid case and Rossi (2018) on the urban dimension of right-wing populism in Italy. The new municipalism is conceived both in terms of cities (in practice usually larger ones), but also urbanization as a political plane to develop alternatives to nation state centred politics – contesting neoliberal and nativist agendas and forging transnational networks of solidarity and policy transfer (Thompson, 2021).…”

¿Una nueva forma de hacer política? Modos de gobernanza participativa y Ayuntamientos del cambio en España (2015-2019)

“…Mucho de los perfiles que asumieron los nuevos cargos, pertenecían a una joven clase media profesional, desligada de los partidos políticos tradicionales y afectada por el proceso de precarización agudizado en los últimos años (Rodríguez López, 2016), un perfil que Walliser (2013) ha denominado como «Nuevos Activistas Urbanos». Este grupo poblacional encontró, primero en el 15-M y luego en las nuevas confluencias, un espacio de experimentación y generación de redes, tanto presenciales como digitales (Walliser y De la Fuente, 2018 La apuesta municipalista surge en contra del modelo de urbanismo neoliberal y de austeridad (Blanco et al, 2019;Janoschka y Mota, 2020). Para afrontarlo, los Ayuntamientos del Cambio proponen una nueva agenda urbana (Telleria y Lekue, 2020) que no solo pretende contraponer las políticas empresarialistas a partir de las tradicionales políticas regulatorias keynesianas (Peck, 2012;Brenner, 2017), sino dar un paso más allá, desarrollando una nueva institucionalidad a partir de fórmulas de gestión público-comunitarias (Martínez et al, 2019).…”

“…Para afrontarlo, los Ayuntamientos del Cambio proponen una nueva agenda urbana (Telleria y Lekue, 2020) que no solo pretende contraponer las políticas empresarialistas a partir de las tradicionales políticas regulatorias keynesianas (Peck, 2012;Brenner, 2017), sino dar un paso más allá, desarrollando una nueva institucionalidad a partir de fórmulas de gestión público-comunitarias (Martínez et al, 2019). Las nuevas líneas de la agenda urbana propuesta por los Ayuntamientos del Cambio se pueden resumir en: (1) Freno al modelo de expansión urbana o growth machine, (2) re-municipalización de los servicios privatizados durante las administraciones anteriores, (3) recuperación del espacio público y (4) regeneración democrática a partir de la implementación de nuevos mecanismos participativos ( Janoschka y Mota, 2018).…”

Who cares for what? Care networks and new urban activisms in Madrid: Restating solidarity

“…By 2009, crisis austerity governance began to specifically affect local urban policy and welfare provision, which had already been successfully privatized and externalized during the previous two decades. New public management initiatives and the convergence of conservative neoliberal governments in the city and region of Madrid during that period (Janoschka & Mota, 2020) developed a growth machine with massive investment in infrastructures and other that peaked in 2013 a debt of 8 billion Euros, or 154 per cent of the city of Madrid's annual budget.…”

“…With the economy's gradual recovery, a lot of those networks gradually decreased their activity. In Spring 2020, the reactivation of networks was extremely quick due to the local political activist culture still in place (Janoschka & Mota, 2020), in which many of the participants involved in the historical neighbourhood associations dating from the late 60s (Castells, 1983;Pérez & Sanchez, 2008) continue to be active, as it is the case of the Regional Federation of Neighbourhood Associations (FRAVM), an active progressive force in the governance context of neoliberal urbanism.…”