The Urban Question Revisited: The Importance of Cities for Social Movements

Walter J. Nicholls

International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 2008, vol. 32, issue 4, 841-859

Abstract: Abstract What roles do cities play in fostering general social movements? This article maintains that cities facilitate particular types of relations that are good at making high‐quality resources available to mobilizations operating at a variety of spatial scales. However, while large and complex urban systems may be well suited for these types of relations, whether they actually develop depends on the nature of local power relations between political authorities and civic organizations. In certain cities local configurations of political power may favor the growth of these relations, with these cities becoming important nodal points in geographically extended social movement networks. In other cities, by contrast, local configurations of political power may hamper the formation of these relations. This is a theoretical article that draws on network theory to inform the conceptual framework and a variety of empirical cases for illustrative purposes. Résumé Quels rôles les villes jouent‐elles dans l’alimentation des mouvements sociaux généraux? Elles facilitent des types particuliers de relations qui réussissent à rendre des ressources de qualité accessibles à des mobilisations opérant à divers échelons spatiaux. Pourtant, si les grands réseaux urbains complexes sont sans doute bien adaptés à ces types de relations, leur développement effectif dépend de la nature des relations de pouvoir locales entre les autorités politiques et les organisations de citoyens. Dans certaines villes, les configurations locales du pouvoir politique peuvent favoriser l’intensification de ces relations, ces villes devenant d’importants points nodaux au sein de réseaux de mouvements sociaux de grande ampleur géographique. Dans d’autres, en revanche, les configurations locales du pouvoir politique peuvent gêner la constitution de ces relations. Cet article théorique utilise la théorie des réseaux pour éclairer le cadre conceptuel et plusieurs cas empiriques à titre indicatif.

Date: 2008
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