Citizen movements and community organizations, both at neighbourhood and city level, are embraced by all Parties as representing a revival of citizenship. However, they are now operating in an increasingly politicized context created by a narrative of austerity, in which “citizenship” as a concept, and forms of local agency, are drawn into the service of dominant ideas and practices - in this case being framed as part of a post-antagonistic politics and state-market synergy. This paper uses case studies from post-industrial communities around Nottingham to argue from a Gramscian perspective that the outcome of this process is not determined. Ongoing conflicts with state and market over local power leave space for oppositional forms of politics. However, the ability of these organizations to contest hegemonic politics rests on building internal coherence based on collective experience of political economy, and which marks them out as different from both state and market.
