• Social democracy and urban politics
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Social democracy and urban politics

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Social democracy and urban politicsdelves into the changing relationship between social democratic, radical left and green parties within the political space of European cities, reflecting upon the...
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  • 28 October 2025
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Social democratic parties struggle to appeal to a divided electorate. Particularly prescient is the clash between working-class voters that are socially conservative and middle-class voters who are liberally inclined but economically left. Are politics and policies that appeal to both even a possibility? Nowhere is that debate more acute than in European cities, yet in no other political space are answers more likely to be found. Where urban voters turn left, they are increasingly attracted by radical and green alternatives to social democracy. Social democracy and urban politics delves into the changing relationship between these three party families on the urban scene. Mapping electoral geography, governing strategies and the interface between parties and social movements on the left, the authors reflect upon the formation and dilemmas of a broader progressive alliance.
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Price: $140.00
Pages: 352
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Imprint: Manchester University Press
Series: European Politics
Publication Date: 28 October 2025
ISBN: 9781526180940
Format: Hardcover
BISACs: Urban communities, Comparative politics
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Nik. Brandal is Associate Professor at the Institute of Political Science and International Relations, Oslo New University College.
Øivind Bratberg is Senior Lecturer at the Department of Political Science, University of Oslo.

Introduction: The urban dilemmas of the European centre-left – Nik. Brandal and Øivind Bratberg
Part I: Structural conditions and electoral geography
1 Social structures in European cities – Hans Thor Andersen
2 Changing social democratic urban-rural cleavages – Jane Gingrich
3 Left-left compeition: an urban phenomenon? – Petar Bankov and Dan Keith
4 Urban labour markets and trade unions: a review of the challenges and opportunities – Christian Lyhne Ibsen
Part II: Party strategies
5 What and where are urban left mayors delivering in England? – Max Stafford, Georgina Blakeley and Thom Oliver
6 The painstaking forging of the liberal left in Polish cities – Anna Paczes´niak
7 The Danish Social Democratic Party and urban voters, 1900-2024 – Niels Wium Olesen and Rasmus M. Mariager
8 A social democratic holding strategy? Managing the greening and radicalisation of the left in Oslo – Øivind Bratberg
9 Managing multiculturalism in two Swedish cities – Lisa Pelling
Part III: Mobilisation and the party/movement interface
10 Comparing youth mobilisation by the urban centre-left in France and Spain – Mathieu Petithomme
11 Competing for the centre-left? Urban German Green Party activists and the party/movement interface – Chantal Sullivan-Thomsett
12 Social movements and the left at the subnational level in Central and Eastern Europe – Julia Rone, Ivaylo Dinev, and Karlo Kralj
13 Pitching tents and raising walls: Building a progressive alliance in UK cities and beyond
Conclusion – Nik. Brandal and Øivind Bratberg