IOS Dialogue #3 - What can a city do? Municipalities in times of global turmoil

The upcoming municipal elections in the Netherlands offer a timely opportunity to reflect on the growing significance of cities and municipalities in addressing global challenges that now shape everyday local realities. Climate change, migration, and geopolitical tensions increasingly influence local governance, service provision, social cohesion, and democratic trust.

In this third IOS dialogue, Institutions for Open Societies collaborates with IOS Platforms Fair Transitions and Open Cities, and the Focus Area Migration and Societal Change, to explore how local governments can act as democratic, responsive, and resilient actors amid global uncertainty. Bringing together researchers, students, and societal partners, the session invites reflection and debate across multiple scales—from international norms and human rights principles to grounded experiences in cities across the world.

Key questions include: 

• How can municipalities address global challenges—such as migration, climate change, and social inequality—through local policies and governance?
• What role can cities play in protecting human rights and providing inclusive support for migrants and other vulnerable groups?
• How do political choices, power relations, and economic pressures shape access to urban space, resources, and protection at the local level?
• In times of geopolitical tension and rising polarization, how can cities pursue fair, resilient, and just transitions?

Speakers

Jan Braat - Utrecht as a sanctuary city

Drawing on Utrecht’s approach to migration and asylum, this talk explores how cities can provide protection and support for people who fall outside national systems. Using Utrecht as a case, it shows how local policies—such as shelter, guidance, and inclusive integration initiatives—can combine humanitarian concerns with pragmatic urban governance.

Ilse van Liempt - The role of cities in the reception and inclusion of migrants

With nativist politics on the rise many cities show different directions when it comes to how they want to receive and include migrants. This can be a pragmatic approach but often also is a political choice. 

Julie Fraser - Rights from the ground up: How cities can realise rights and drive a just climate transition

While international law focuses rather myopically on the state, Eleanor Roosevelt knew already in the 1940's that human rights begin "in small spaces, close to home". Taking this bottom-up perspective, Julie will explore the roles that local governments can and have played in realising rights - including democratic and environmental rights - at the city-level.

Tatiana Acevedo Guerrero - Political ecology in the city

Drawing on political ecology, how power and capitalism shape access to nature and urban space, I will discuss how municipalities can govern land, water, and housing as contested resources, countering dispossession and inequality while advancing climate resilience and just transitions.

Program

If you are interested in learning more about the political parties' positions on urgent issues and local plans, you are also cordially invited to participate in the Municipal Council Election Event LEG Faculty (in Dutch) in the evening. This is a separate event and requires separate registration. For more information, please visit their event page.