Unwinding privatization cities and the restoration of public power edited by Alba Alexander, Larry Bennett, Evan McKenzie, and Michael A. Pagano

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Alexander, Alba, editor.

Bennett, Larry, 1950- editor.

McKenzie, Evan, editor.

Pagano, Michael A., editor.

Series:

Urban and industrial environments

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Municipal services.

Public-private sector cooperation.

Privatization.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Massachusetts The MIT Press [2026]

Summary:

"How remunicipalization can be implemented to restructure urban governance.Across North America, Europe, and the Global South, public services such as water and energy that were once privatized have returned to public sector functions—an intriguing new development known as remunicipalization. Unwinding Privatization, edited by Alba Alexander, Larry Bennett, Evan McKenzie, and Michael Pagano, explores the sources, scale, and implications of transferring ownership of public services and discusses its prospective impact on cities and metropolitan regions.At the heart of each service transfer is a crucial reconfiguration of power and responsibility—who gets to participate in making central decisions and which incentives drive these decisions. This collection by leading urban scholars presents alternating perspectives on these shifts in governance, framing remunicipalization as both a pragmatic response to the inefficiencies of privatization and as a democratic resurgence driven by public demands for accountability and sustainability. Drawing on timely and geographically wide-ranging research, the editors assess the highly nuanced task of “unwinding privatization” and, in doing so, how we can achieve an optimal relationship of private to public power"-- MIT Press Direct

Contents:

Introduction : privatization under stress / Alba Alexander, Larry Bennett, Evan McKenzie, and Michael A. Pagano

Reappraising remunicipalization through history : the case of Berlin / Timothy Moss

The myth of American hostility to public enterprise / Gail Radford

Socialist aspirations and local realities / Marco Rosaire Rossi

Pragmatic or political? understanding privatization and remunicipalization trends among US local governments / Mildred E. Warner

Remunicipalization, neoliberal mutation, and spatially varied deprivatization in the UK and Germany / Andrew Cumbers, Bethia Pearson, Franziska Paul, and Laura Stegemann

Reviving public control : are we heading toward a new “progressive era”? / Milagros Álvarez-Verdugo and Germà Bel

Remunicipalization and democratization of Paris water : a proven success / Anne Le Strat

Suburbanization, privatization, remunicipalization, and the right to water / Richardson Dilworth

(Re)presenting municipal water : decolonizing the city in Singapore / Martha Kaplan

The infrastructural commons : reclaiming utilities in postbankruptcy Detroit / Rachel Havrelock

Institutions matter : suburbanization as privatization / Todd Swanstrom

New municipalism, remunicipalization, and common-based approaches : insights from European cities / Iolanda Bianchi, Bertie Russell, and Marina Pera

Conclusion : social citizenship and public power / Alba Alexander, Larry Bennett, Evan McKenzie, and Michael A. Pagano

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index

Online resource; title from PDF title page (MIT Press Direct, viewed June 30, 2026)

Other Format:

Print version Unwinding privatization

ISBN:

9780262053389

0262053381

OCLC:

1599317031

Access Restriction:

Some versions Open access versions available from some providers open access