ABSTRACT

What can we learn about collective action across Central and Eastern Europe by focusing on activism within urban spaces? This volume argues that the recent resurgence of urban grassroots mobilisation represents a new phase in the development of post-socialist civil societies and that these civil societies have significantly more vitality than is commonly perceived. The case studies here reflect the diversity and complexity of post-socialist urban movements, capturing also the extent to which the laboratory of urban politics is richly illustrative of the complex nexus of state-society-market relations within post-socialism. The grassroots campaigns and actions reflect the new social cleavages and increased polarisation as a consequence of neoliberal urbanisation and global integration, as well as the transformation of state power and authority in the region. Studying urban activism in Central and Eastern Europe is instructive for urban movements scholars generally, as it forces us to acknowledge the variety of forms that contention can take and the usefulness of embedding the study of urban movements within a larger understanding of civil society.

chapter |32 pages

Introduction:

The Development of Urban Movements in Central and Eastern Europe

chapter |22 pages

The Playfulness of Resistance:

Articulations of Urban Grassroots Activism in Post-Socialist Vilnius

chapter |24 pages

The Ups and Downs of a Symbolic City:

The Architectural Heritage Protection Movement in Bucharest

chapter |20 pages

Urban Grassroots, Anti-Politics and Modernity:

Bike Activism in Belgrade

chapter |20 pages

Unsettling ‘The Urban' in Post-Yugoslav Activisms:

‘Right to the City' and Pride Parades in Serbia and Croatia

chapter |24 pages

The Performative Logic of Urban Space Contestation:

Two Examples of Local Community Mobilisation in St. Petersburg

chapter |32 pages

From ‘Local' to ‘Political':

The Kaliningrad Mass Protest Movement of 2009–2010 in Russia

chapter |24 pages

Alliance Building and Brokerage in Contentious Politics:

The Case of the Polish Tenants' Movement

chapter |28 pages

Shaping the City and its Inhabitants:

Urban Activism in Slovakia

chapter |26 pages

Europeanisation and Urban Movements:

Political Opportunities of Community Organisations in Lithuania

chapter |16 pages

Conclusion:

Towards a New Research Agenda