How to address growing inequality, cynicism, distrust, and alienation? An ascendant municipalist movement argues that we should look for answers at the local level. Municipalism seeks to reinvent and reinvigorate local urban democracy by pushing back against overbearing bureaucracies and overpowering market forces. While the commitment to municipalism is strong and the momentum palpable, a key question is whether and how municipalist initiatives – from digital democracy platforms to public-communitarian partnerships – work in practice. To answer this question, the Municipalist Neighborhood Experiments (MUNEX) project examines municipalist policy experiments in neighborhoods in three cities: Amsterdam, Barcelona, and Vienna.

MUNEX’ overarching goal is to work with municipalities, citizens and transnational municipalist networks to build capacity by delivering strategic insights on the success factors of municipalist initiatives, testing out new approaches to governance and urban justice, and strengthening networks for transnational policy learning. MUNEX will further co-create with its partners a prototype municipalist innovation to be shared between neighborhoods in Amsterdam, Barcelona and Vienna in an ambitious transnational exchange. Building on existing research and relations with urban stakeholders, the research will provide profound and actionable insights into the creation of neighborhoods which are liveable, just, inclusive and attractive to all.