This book analyses the waves of protests, from spontaneous uprisings to well-organized forms of collective action, which have shaken European cities over the last decade. It shows how analysing these protests in connection with the structural context of neoliberal urbanism and its crises is more productive than standard explanations. Processes of neoliberalisation have caused deeply segregated urban landscapes defined by deepening social inequality, rising unemployment, racism, securitization of urban spaces and welfare state withdrawal, particularly from poor peripheral areas, where tensions between marginalized youth and police often manifest in public spaces. Challenging a conventional distinction made in research on protest, the book integrates a structural analysis of processes of large scale urban transformation with analyses of the relationship between 'riots' and social movement action in nine countries: France, Greece, England, Germany, Spain, Poland, Denmark, Sweden and Turkey.

Margit Mayer is Professor of Political Science at Freie Universität of Berlin, Germany, and Senior Fellow at the Center for Metropolitan Studies, Technical University Berlin, Germany.

Catharina Thörn is Associate Professor in Cultural Studies at University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

Håkan Thörn is Full Professor of Sociology at University of Gothenburg, Sweden.