Building a bridge: constitution and negotiations of urban movement

This thesis investigates the issue of collective activism in the urban environment, examining the process of constituting and maintaining the urban movement in the city, and negotiations taken by its members aiming at delivering the urban change. As the urban change can be defined through social and spatial structures of the city, this paper takes a critical stance on spatial dimension, with the aim of contributing to the discussion on which role is more effective: urban activist or urban city councillor.The investigated case is a local urban movement - Ludzie Dla Miasta - from medium size Polish city Gorzów. The group and the city in question are called the symbols of Polish urban movements due to their successful results in municipality elections, when they introduced a number of members to the city council and their candidate became a city mayor.The research included an ethnographic study and qualitative data collection, combining interviewing, personal experience and secondary sources. The data reveals unknown insights, challenges and problems of urban collective which are later analysed through a theoretical framework built upon concepts by Lefebvre, Harvey, Wallis, Melucci and Castells among others.The main finding of the analysis affirms that the spatial sub-structure of the city serves as an origin for the constitution of the urban movement. Initially, it delivers elements of individual identity for future activists. Later it reinforces their collective identity in a struggle with political apparatus. The spatial aspect of the city serves as a motivation and field of goals. Additionally, the decision of joining the political apparatus is destructible for the urban movement that did not develop enough structures to support their members in the city government.