Cities and their grassroutes

Abstract

It is 30 years since the publication of the book which established ‘grassroots’ as a key term in urban studies. In The City and the Grassroots, Manuel Castells (1983) used grassroots to refer to a long history of western cities as fertile ground for political activism. Grassroots is intended to capture how urban activisms are nurtured from the ground up, drawing strength from place-based political memories and solidarities. There is no doubting the enduring importance of this botanical metaphor for studies of local urban politics, nor of the continued political and intellectual relevance of The City and the Grassroots. The introduction to a series of short essays marking the 21st anniversary of the book (in 2004) suggested that its contributions may have become more relevant than ever in an “era of global neoliberalization, and with new social movements’ ongoing struggles in the cities of the global north and south” (Ward and McCann, 2006, p. 190). Our concern in this commentary is with the inadequacy of the metaphor of ‘grassroots’ for capturing the more-than-local geographies of urban activism and transformation.