From Urbanization to Cities by Murray Bookchin

From Urbanization to Cities by Murray Bookchin

From Urbanization to Cities is a sweeping history of the city, not as a destination for capitalist exchange and individual gratification but as a locus for directly democratic politics. Just as ecosystems rely on participation and mutualism, so must cities--and their citizens--rediscover these qualities, establishing harmonious and ethical social relations. Democratic municipalism is an emancipatory philosophy of self-determination, where politics becomes an everyday act in which ordinary people and local communities take the power of decision making into their own hands. From the Paris Commune to the Kurdish-led revolution in northeast Syria, democratic municipalism is a tool for wresting power from the nation-state, allowing capitalist urbanization to give way to humanly scaled, ecological, and egalitarian societies. 

Murray Bookchin (1929-2006) was an active voice in the ecology and anarchist movements for more than forty years, and is the author of The Ecology of Freedom and Post-Scarcity Anarchism, among many other books.