Making sense of remunicipalisation: theoretical reflections on and political possibilities from Germany’s Rekommumalisierung process

The increasingly discussed phenomenon of ‘remunicipalisation’ marks a global trend since 2000 for cities to take formerly privatised assets, infrastructure and services back into public ownership. It is most prominent in basic service sectors such as water and energy, but it is also evident in a range of diverse utility and infrastructure areas—from education, health, refuse and other areas of local government. As a reaction to the problems and contradictions arising from four decades of privatisation and marketisation of public services, remunicipalisation represents a compelling contemporary phenomenon of urban politics and governance. In this article, we critically interrogate remunicipalisation in the face of ongoing and mutating processes of neoliberal urbanism. Drawing upon evidence from the German Rekommunalisierung process in the energy sector, we explore both the wider conceptual significance of remunicipalisation and its progressive potential in contributing to an alternative urban politics beyond neoliberalism.