Global norms, local contestation: privatisation and de/politicisation in Berlin

This article makes an important contribution to the depoliticisation literature by switching the focus on to how strategies and forms of depoliticised governance are repoliticised. At present, there is an absence of empirical research on how issues move from depoliticised to politicised arenas and the role of non-state actors in these processes. This article addresses these gaps through an exploration of the partial remunicipalisation of the Berlin Water Company in 2012. The case study reveals the potential for dynamic interplay between processes of depoliticisation and politicisation and the continuing possibility for political agency despite the constraints in urban politics.