European local authorities are gaining more political influence and recognition, both domestically and internationally. Many cities across Europe have designed and implemented interventions in contradistinction to state policy. Similarly, the establishment of supra-national municipal organisations witnesses the desire of cities to be ‘masters of their destiny’. This book therefore examines municipalities’ emancipatory endeavours, zooming in on the centrifugal push occurring in Europe.

This introductory chapter seeks to answer some questions about the purpose of this book as well as the concepts and analytical categories employed. First, what kind of cities is this book concerned with? Second, in a globalised world, does it make sense to research cities? Third, why is it important, from an academic perspective, to analyse the state–local conflict? In what follows, I will first elucidate who the protagonists of this book are and discuss what type of cities will be taken into consideration. Then, I will briefly introduce the core theme of this book, that is, European cities’ endeavours and instruments to liberate themselves from the state. Finally, the chapter will illustrate the structure of the book.

The unit of analysis: which cities?

In this section I do not want to engage with the question what a city is. Partly because countless works have been published to define the nature of cities since the harbingers of urban sociology began to draw their attention to urban processes. As such, it seems to me quite pointless to rehearse all over again the raft of definitions of ‘city’, accompanied by their critiques and counter-critiques. Additionally, I would avoid this terminological exercise because its epistemological usefulness is questionable, as I believe that the majority – if not all – of the readers would be able to assign a meaning to the word ‘city’. The latter would be described, more or less, as a place where people live and engage in multiple activities. Alternatively, those readers with some political, sociological or geographical knowledge would define a city as a human settlement administratively placed below the state and any other intermediate level (such as regions and provinces). While rough and highly contestable from a scholarly viewpoint, this description would suffice to avert a long-standing and (in my opinion) exhausted debate.