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    Unwinding Privatization

    Cities and the Restoration of Public Power

    Part of Urban and Industrial Environments

    Edited by Alba Alexander, Larry Bennett, Evan McKenzie, Michael A. Pagano
    Ebook
    The MIT Press
    On sale Jun 23, 2026 | 366 Pages | 9780262053396
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    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.
    Acknowledgments
    Introduction: Privatization Under Stress
    Alba Alexander, Larry Bennett, Evan McKenzie, Michael Pagano
    Part I: Trends/Origins/History
    1. Reappraising Remunicipalization through History: The Case of Berlin
    Timothy Moss
    2. The Myth of American Hostility to Public Enterprise, and Why It Matters
    Gail Radford
    3. Socialist Aspirations and Local Realities
    Marco Rosaire Rossi
    Part II. Interpreting the Trends
    4. Pragmatic or Political? Understanding Privatization and Remunicipalization
    Trends Among US Local Governments
    Mildred Warner
    5. Remunicipalization, Neoliberal Mutation, and Spatially Varied De-Privatization in the UK and Germany
    Andrew Cumbers, Bethia Pearson, Franziska Paul, and Laura Stegemann
    6. Reviving Public Control: Are we Heading to a New “Progressive Era?”
    Milagro Alvarez and Germà Bel
    Part III: The Many Shapes of Water Services
    7. Remunicipalization and Democratization of Paris Water: A Proven Success
    Anne Le Strat
    8. Suburbanization, Privatization, Re-municipalization, and the Right to Water
    Richardson Dilworth
    9. (Re)presenting Municipal Water: Decolonizing the City in Singapore
    Martha Kaplan
    10.The Infrastructural Commons: Reclaiming Utilities in Post-Bankruptcy Detroit
    Rachel Havrelock
    Part IV: Vision
    11. Institutions Matter: Suburbanization as Privatization
    Todd Swanstrom
    12. New Municipalism, Remunicipalization, and Common-based Approaches: Insights from European Cities
    Iolanda Bianchi, Bertie Russell, Marina Pera
    Conclusions: Social Citizenship and Public Power
    Alba Alexander, Larry Bennett, Evan McKenzie, Michael Pagano
    Contributors
    Index

    About

    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.

    Table of Contents

    Acknowledgments
    Introduction: Privatization Under Stress
    Alba Alexander, Larry Bennett, Evan McKenzie, Michael Pagano
    Part I: Trends/Origins/History
    1. Reappraising Remunicipalization through History: The Case of Berlin
    Timothy Moss
    2. The Myth of American Hostility to Public Enterprise, and Why It Matters
    Gail Radford
    3. Socialist Aspirations and Local Realities
    Marco Rosaire Rossi
    Part II. Interpreting the Trends
    4. Pragmatic or Political? Understanding Privatization and Remunicipalization
    Trends Among US Local Governments
    Mildred Warner
    5. Remunicipalization, Neoliberal Mutation, and Spatially Varied De-Privatization in the UK and Germany
    Andrew Cumbers, Bethia Pearson, Franziska Paul, and Laura Stegemann
    6. Reviving Public Control: Are we Heading to a New “Progressive Era?”
    Milagro Alvarez and Germà Bel
    Part III: The Many Shapes of Water Services
    7. Remunicipalization and Democratization of Paris Water: A Proven Success
    Anne Le Strat
    8. Suburbanization, Privatization, Re-municipalization, and the Right to Water
    Richardson Dilworth
    9. (Re)presenting Municipal Water: Decolonizing the City in Singapore
    Martha Kaplan
    10.The Infrastructural Commons: Reclaiming Utilities in Post-Bankruptcy Detroit
    Rachel Havrelock
    Part IV: Vision
    11. Institutions Matter: Suburbanization as Privatization
    Todd Swanstrom
    12. New Municipalism, Remunicipalization, and Common-based Approaches: Insights from European Cities
    Iolanda Bianchi, Bertie Russell, Marina Pera
    Conclusions: Social Citizenship and Public Power
    Alba Alexander, Larry Bennett, Evan McKenzie, Michael Pagano
    Contributors
    Index

    Additional formats

    • Unwinding Privatization
      Unwinding Privatization
      Cities and the Restoration of Public Power
      9780262053372
      $75.00 US
      Paperback
      The MIT Press
      Jun 23, 2026
    • Unwinding Privatization
      Unwinding Privatization
      Cities and the Restoration of Public Power
      9780262053372
      $75.00 US
      Paperback
      The MIT Press
      Jun 23, 2026

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