We are pleased to announce that the RSA Board have agreed funding for the Research Network on Municipalism and Regional Fiscal Geographies (MuniFisc). An estimated 85% of the world’s population live under austerity. Over the last decade, this has generated a range of policy responses at the local, national and multilateral level. Across the Global South, structural adjustment has returned, impacting municipal as well as national finances. At the same time, municipal bonds based on North American models have been disseminated as part of a push towards green bond implementation, and efforts to address service delivery and infrastructure finance in a fragmented municipal landscape. In Europe and North America, a decade of municipal austerity has resulted in reorganisation of the local state, experimentation with financialized investment strategies and service delivery, and municipalist movements seeking to restructure relations between democracy, finance and the local state.
This network brings together academics, policymakers and community organisers working across disciplines (geography, critical accounting, development studies) and draw together converging research agendas across the Global North & South.
The organisers say
“Across the globe municipal governments find themselves at the sharp end of austerity, and as key sites for financial experimentation and innovation, whilst also being responsible for the provision of services and resources vital for social reproduction. We are excited to have an opportunity to connect scholars across the Global North and Global South who are concerned with understanding the way that contests over municipal democracy intersect with the fiscal geography of the local state.”
The RSA is looking forward to working with the network’s community and the organisers, Paul Gilbert (University of Sussex, UK); Calvin King Lam Chung (The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong); and Andy Pike (Newcastle University, UK).