The central premise of this book is to articulate radical municipalist perspectives on the intersection between the politics of the common and public goods and services. It is the first to examine the possibilities offered and challenges posed by the application of common-based approaches to the transformation of local public goods and services in and beyond the urban and the local dimension. Acknowledging that such transformations are not simple policy ‘fixes’ but the outcome of contestation, the book will not focus exclusively on nominally successful cases, but on those struggles (and the groups struggling) to redefine what public goods and services ought to be in different contexts and scales and how their governance ought to be designed. Understanding the role of institutional and non-institutional actors, and the challenges and opportunities they face in their efforts to create new public goods and services, is integral to developing our understanding of how common-based approaches function as concrete radical municipalist practice.

Through three substantive empirical sections, one focusing on practices implemented during the Barcelona en Comú government (Spain), one focusing on the broader European geography, and one addressing cases in the Americas, the book aims to critically reflect upon: i) the role of the paradigm of the common in driving a democratisation of the local state and its public goods and services in different contexts; ii) the potential for radical political change initiated by common-inspired approaches to public goods and services; iii) the tensions that arise when seeking to combine direct and representative democracy in public management structures; and iv) how the concept of public goods and services is itself being contested.

The book represents a timely and significant contribution in the field of critical urban studies, situated at the intersection of state theory, social movement studies and public administration theory, it proposes a theoretical elaboration of the existing relationship between radical municipalist politics and the paradigm of the common and its democratising potential.