Remunicipalisation

ÖZ
Bu çalışmada suyun metalaşması süreci analiz edilmekte; suyun metalaşması sürecinde yerel yönetimlerin ikili rolüne değinilerek su hakkı mücadelelerinin yeniden belediyeleştirme talepleri ele alınmakta; su hakkı mücadelelerinde bir talep olarak ortaya çıkan suyun yeniden belediyeleştirilmesi süreci suyun mülkiyeti tartışmasından hareketle eleştirel bir bakış açısıyla değerlendirilmektedir. Ayrıca suyun metalaşması süreci analiz edilirken su sadece iktisadi bir kavram
olarak ele alınmamakta; suyun iktisadi olanın dışında da anlamlara sahip olduğu iddia edilmektedir. Dolayısıyla suyun metalaşması süreci sadece suyun alınıp satılabilen bir nesneye dönüşmesi olarak değerlendirilmemekte; suyun metalaşması süreci aynı zamanda suyun anlamının da dönüşmesi olarak da yorumlanmaktadır.
Anahtar Kelimeler: su hakkı, suyun metalaşması, yerel yönetimler, yeniden belediyeleştirme, su hakkı mücadeleleri

Abstract
The process of commodification of water is analysed in this study; addressing the dual role of local administrations in the process of commodification of water; The process of re-municipalization of water, which emerged as a demand for the right to water struggles, is evaluated from a critical point of view, based on the discussion of the ownership of water. Water is not only considered as an economic concept when analyzing the process of commodification of water; water is also claimed to have meanings outside the economic. Therefore, the process of commodification of water is not considered to be merely the transformation of water into a sellable object; the process of commodification of water is also interpreted as the transformation of the meaning of water.
Keywords: right to water, commodification of water, local governments, remunicipalisation, struggles for right to water

This dissertation examines two urban social movements – in Berlin and Minneapolis - that ran campaigns for democratically run, public, municipal scale energy utilities. These movements are early attempts to bring movement-based conceptions of energy democracy into urban political institutions.

The movements demanded public utilities advance just urban energy transitions, but more than that, they demanded grassroots participation in and benefit from those transitions. This instituted a demand for self-determination and social control over publicly owned goods (energy utilities). The movements therefore tried to transform state institutions and change what is thought necessary for sustainable energy transitions. This approach to urban energy transitions is unique in combining democratic demands that attempt to re-make the how of local politics and institutions. This remaking is explained as an attempt to institute practices of “commoning.”

Over recent decades, various social movements have established commoning – a system of collective access to and control over a shared need, guided by principles of
self-determination and interrelation through collective action – as a key model for and means of transformation toward alternative socio-ecological relationships. I argue that the two campaigns examined are part of this trend. I develop this argument by showing how these movements undertook a unique strategy that attempted to shift the boundaries of the politically possible and advance specific visions of commoning energy that could extend towards broader socio-ecological and democratic transformation. By conceiving of the state as an open terrain of struggle, it is possible to see practices of commoning in, against, and beyond the state (Cumbers 2015, Angel 2017 and 2019).

Through in-depth participatory case studies and comparative analysis of Berlin and Minneapolis, Climate Municipalism examines how these movements succeeded in creating politics around energy issues and forcing the hand of local governments. It finds that these campaigns succeeded in reworking the terrains of local climate governance and energy systems in selective ways, and in opening up broader discussions of strategies for political transformation, even though they failed to fully install their visions in the respective cities. The dissertation reflects on the outcome of the movements to question how social movements conceptualize their relationship to the state.

The built environment in Egypt has long vexed the country’s citizens who continue to face the  challenges of accessing safe transportation, clean water, and affordable housing primarily through self-reliance in the absence of strong government support and programs. Despite billions of Egyptian pounds in infrastructure investment both at a national and international level, Egypt's cities, towns and villages continue to grow and function in much the same way they have over the last three decades, and all continue to face varying degrees of deprivation as well as hazards. Shortages in housing, municipal services and transport--the three main ingredients of functioning communities-continue
for most Egyptians, while a minority is very well served.
It is no surprise then that the main call of the January 25th Revolution was “Bread! Freedom! Social justice!”

El presente artículo ha sido desarrollado en el marco del proyecto de investigación
PROTO_LOCAL cuyo objetivo es analizar distintas políticas destacadas de los nuevos
gobiernos locales surgidos de candidaturas ciudadanas o municipalistas en las elecciones de
2015. Se trata de una investigación comparada que incluye cinco ciudades españolas
(Barcelona, Córdoba, Madrid, Zaragoza y Valencia).
Con motivo de facilitar el análisis de los cambios y las continuidades en la forma de gobernar
la ciudad de Madrid, este texto se centra en las condiciones previas a las elecciones de 2015
y, concretamente, en dimensiones clave como son la vivienda, el control y securitización del
espacio público, la privatización de servicios municipales y, finalmente, los mecanismos de
participación ciudadana. Estos aspectos se analizarán a lo largo del documento desde dos
perspectivas distintas. Por una parte, se revisarán las políticas públicas aplicadas a las
problemáticas en cuestión y, por otra, las reivindicaciones y propuestas por parte de diversos
movimientos sociales de Madrid. Finalmente, se presentará una síntesis de las propuestas del
programa electoral de Ahora Madrid relacionadas con dichas políticas y reivindicaciones. De
esta forma el artículo contribuye a construir una perspectiva amplia sobre la forma en la que
se ha desarrollado el modelo de ciudad de Madrid.

The remunicipalization of Parisian water services: new challenges for local authorities and policy implications

Joyce Valdovinos*
Université Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3, Paris, France
(Received 23 January 2011; final version received 22 February 2012)

In 2010, Parisian authorities remunicipalized water services. This paper addresses three main questions: How did this reform come about? Why did public authorities return to a public management model for water services?What are the main policy implications? It identifies two critical factors: (1) the promotion of a “revisited” model of public-private partnerships by international institutions, and (2) the rise of a new political vision
amongst local authorities concerning their own role as key actors in water services management.

Keywords: water services; remunicipalization; public management; public-private partnership; Paris.

This paper proposes Critical Legal Engineering [CLE] as a new methodology for legal-geographic action research. While legal geography is on the rise, geographers rarely participate in legal or judicial process, and when they do – for example as court expert witnesses – they merely respond to the preestablished agendas of the legal system. I argue that legal geographers’ knowledge on the nature of law and its relations with society is a source of power that could allow them to set legal agendas and pluralize legal discussions. CLE assumes that legal geographers can put forward technical legal arguments, thus using law’s own tools to implement normative agendas implied in critical research. However, CLE demands a dialectical attitude that preserves the contradiction between political ends and legal technology – while pursuing both of them at the same time. As I show, CLE can realize critical agendas in three ways. First, it coopts the legitimacy provided by the legal system, lending it to the agendas that are otherwise perceived as ‘too radical’. Second, elevated by the law these radical agendas may gain greater power to influence political-economic realities even before the legal outcomes are decided. Finally, CLE draws out of ‘technical’ legal discussions into the heat of the public debate, thus politicizing the law. Having developed this methodological proposition in the course of my research on urban movements, I illustrate it with the strategy of Berlin’s campaign Deutsche Wohnen & Co. Enteignen [DWE] which has crafted a legal argumentation based on Art. 15 of the German Constitution to pursue remunicipalizion (or de-privatizaton) of housing.

Resumen: El escenario de los últimos años en materia de gestión urbana del agua, nos muestra la existencia de una tensión entre un modelo de gestión de expertos que basa sus decisiones en prioridades de eficiencia económica, dejando de lado los aspectos sociales, y un modelo basado en principios democráticos. Estos debates en torno a la remunicipalización tienen dos grandes líneas, por un lado, la construcción de una estrategia para emprender los procesos de democratización que apuntan hacia la recuperación de la gestión pública en un 100% y por otro lado, la preocupación por el desarrollo de mecanismos para la inclusión de la ciudadanía en los espacios de tomas de decisión En este sentido toma importancia la tesis de que hay una relación entre el modelo de gestión del agua con el modelo social y económico, siendo éste un posible momento de inflexión social..

Resumen. En el contexto social y político catalán surgido tras el estallido de la crisis de finales de 2008, el debate sobre la gestión del agua ha ido tomando relevancia pública hasta el punto de ser parte central en los programas políticos que las nuevas candidaturas electorales surgidas después del movimiento conocido como 15M prepararon para las elecciones municipales de 2015. Este proceso ha ido en paralelo con los cambios sociales acontecidos después del 15 de mayo de 2011, hecho que se constata en distintos aspectos. Algunas de las características que marcan este periodo son los cambios en el discurso, el cambio de algunos de sus protagonistas, el trato de la gestión del agua; así como la sustitución progresiva de una estrategia centrada en la no privatización, hacia el reclamo del aumento de la capacidad de decidir de la ciudadanía en la gestión del agua en el ámbito municipal. Pasando de una lucha a escala estatal y/o autonómica a una a escala local. En este artículo se enumeran aquellos aspectos que dan pie a la pregunta: ¿Qué concepción del común articula el nuevo escenario de lucha por el agua municipal y qué formas empíricas adquiere? Abstract. In the Catalan context that emerged with the outbreak of the crisis in the winter of 2008, the debate on water management has become important to the point where it is a central part of the political programs that the new candidacies that emerged after the square occupations in 2011 prepared for the local council elections of 2015. This process has run altogether with the social changes that took place after May 2011, with the citizen movement known as 15M, a fact that is verified in different aspects, such as: the message, change of subjects and treatment of water; As well as an important shift of a strategy focused on non-privatization, towards a demand of the increase of the capacity of the citizens in taking decisions on water management at the municipal scope. Moving from a national and / or regional struggle to a local scale. This article describes those aspects that give rise to the question: What conception of the common are listed articulates the new stage of struggle for municipal water and what empirical forms adopted.

Remunicypalizacja dotyczy usług publicznych, w szczególności tych o charakterze technicznym (np. dostarczanie wody, energii, gazu, transport), ale może dotyczyć również usług społecznych (np. edukacja, opieka zdrowotna, usługi rynku pracy, pomoc społeczna). Municypalizacja lub komunalizacja usług publicznych oznacza, że są one publicznie regulowane, organizowane, finansowane oraz świadczone przez jednostki organizacyjne zakładane i należące do samorządu terytorialnego. Przedrostek re- oznacza, że następuje powrót do stanu, który miał miejsce w przeszłości. Remunicypalizacja lub rekomunalizacja zakładają, że w przeszłości już wystąpiła municypalizacja lub komunalizacja usług publicznych, a następnie wystąpił proces demunicypalizacji lub dekomunalizacji.

En el contexto social y político catalán surgido tras el estallido de la crisis de finales de 2008, el debate sobre la gestión del agua ha ido tomando relevancia pública hasta el punto de ser parte central en los programas políticos que las nuevas candidaturas electorales surgidas después del movimiento conocido como 15M prepararon para las elecciones municipales de 2015. Este proceso ha ido en paralelo con los cambios sociales acontecidos después del 15 de mayo de 2011, hecho que se constata en distintos aspectos. Algunas de las características que marcan este periodo son los cambios en el discurso, el cambio de algunos de sus protagonistas, el trato de la gestión del agua; así como la sustitución progresiva de una estrategia centrada en la no privatización, hacia el reclamo del aumento de la capacidad de decidir de la ciudadanía en la gestión del agua en el ámbito municipal. Pasando de una lucha a escala estatal y/o autonómica a una a escala local. En este artículo se enumeran aqu...

Kamusal hizmetlerin özelleştirilmesi ile birlikte fiyatlarda görülen yüksek artışlar, iş koşullarının kötüleşmesi, altyapı yatırımlarının gerçekleşmemesi, şirketlerin adil kaynak yönetimi ve eşit hizmet yerine kâr elde etmeye odaklanması gibi olumsuz gelişmeler, büyük toplumsal muhalefetlere yol açmıştır. Halk tabanından yayılarak gerçekleşen bu muhalefetler, kentsel hizmetlerin tekrar kamu eline geçmesi olarak adlandırılabilecek yeniden belediyeleştirme süreçlerinin ortaya çıkmasını sağlamıştır. Özellikle suyun yeniden belediyeleştirilmesi kampanyaları, suyun kamusal bir " ortak " olduğu ve kamu sahipliliğinde olduğunda halkın daha iyi hizmet alacağı temeline oturmaktadır. Ancak, hizmetlerin sunumu için halk, kamu sektörüne daha büyük güven duysa da çeşitli yasal, siyasi ya da idari sorunlar, bazı kentlerde yeniden belediyeleştirmenin beklendiği ölçüde başarılı gerçekleşememesine neden olmuştur. Bu noktada, halk tabanlı ortaya çıkan yeniden belediyeleştirme faaliyetlerinin yönetim süreçlerinde halk katılımını ne şekilde ele aldığı büyük önem kazanmaktadır. Bu çalışmanın temel amacı, kamuya geri dönen su hizmetlerinin bu yeni süreçte halkın katılımı süreçlerini nasıl ele aldığını irdelemektir.Çalışma kapsamında, yeniden belediyeleştirme sonrası farklı katılım süreçleri yürütmekte olan Paris,Montpellier,Berlin ve Cordoba kentlerinin su yönetim mekanizmaları incelenmiştir. Çalışma sonuçlarına göre, başarısız örneklere ya da çeşitli eksikliklere rağmen, başarılı süreç yöneten bu kentler, gelişmiş kamusal katılım süreçleri yönetmede çok aktörlü yapılarıyla önemli bir ilerleme kaydetmiş görünmektedir.

ABSTRACT

Adverse events associated with the privatization of public services such as continuous price increase, deteriation of working conditions, failure of promised infrastructure investments, focusing on profit instead of fair resource management and equal service led to great public opposition. These opposition that is spreading from the public revealed the process of re-municipalization that can be named as return of urban services to public. Water re-municipalization campaigns are based on the fact that the water is a public " common " and citizens will receive better service if water service is provided by the public. However, although the public has greater confidence in the public sector for the delivery of services, various legal, political or administrative issues have caused some cities to not be as successful as they had been expected. At this point, how the public participation has been addressed in the management process of re-municaplization activities that are spreading from the public is important. The main purpose of this study is to examine how the public participation processes be addressed in the water service managements that are returned to public in this new era. The study examined the water management mechanisms of Paris, Montpellier, Berlin and Cordoba which have different participation mechanisms after the re-municipalization. According to the results of the study, although there are examples of failures or various deficiencies, these cities which manage successfull participation processes, seem to have made considerable progress via their multi-actor structures in managing the process of improved public participation.

The 2008 economic and political crisis produced a favourable opportunity structure for the emergence of new and innovative left-wing political projects and trade union strategies in Spain, especially in relation to remunicipalisation processes that sought to revert the neoliberal policy making at the local scale. The article deploys a Gramscian analysis on trade union discourse production in order to discern complex process of working-class formation and intra-class conflict in the beach cleaning units of the Andalusian city of Cádiz. Crucially, the oppositional stand defended by one of the largest trade unions in Spain towards remunicipalisation shows that trade unions can act as ‘retaining walls’ against political change in periods of social upheaval.

During the Water War in 2000, residents of Cochabamba, Bolivia, famously mobilized against water privatization and gained back public control of the city’s water utility. Nearly two decades later, the water movement’s vision of democratic water provision under the participatory management of ‘social control’ remains largely unfulfilled. This paper points to the difficulties in rebuilding a strong public water service in Cochabamba, focusing on the different—and often incompatible—understandings and interpretations of public participation. Addressing the concept’s malleability to a spectrum of ideologies, this paper builds a typology of different kinds of participation according to their intentionality, outcomes, tools, and practices. Applying this framework to the water politics in Bolivia serves to untangle competing perspectives of participation, uncover whose interests are served, and which groups are included or excluded from access to water and decision-making. This analysis reveals how transformative participation has failed to take hold within the municipal service provider in Cochabamba.