Robin LeBlanc Authors New Book Titled “Proprietors for a Democratic City,” the book explores how ordinary citizens remake public spaces and amplify their political voice.

By Lily Caldwell
September 28, 2026

Robin LeBlanc, William Lyne Wilson Professor of Political Economy at Washington and Lee University, recently authored a new book titled “Proprietors for a Democratic City: Space and Political Voice in Italy,” set to release in November 2026.

Published by the University of Minnesota Press, the book examines how non-elite individuals politically occupy and curate urban spaces even when they do not formally own them. Drawing on over a decade of fieldwork in Bologna, Italy, LeBlanc presents examples of everyday citizens employing the spaces around them to influence political life and highlights the origins of coalitional work that can address contemporary economic, environmental and demographic crises.

This is LeBlanc’s third solo book joining “The Art of the Gut: Manhood, Power and Ethics in Japanese Politics” published in 2010 and “Bicycle Citizenship: The Political World of the Japanese Housewife” published in 1999.

All of LeBlanc’s books are distinguished for their grounding in ethnographic fieldwork. Her third book is particularly noteworthy given the need to develop Italian language skills after two decades of Japanese studies. LeBlanc took two terms of Italian classes at W&L alongside some of her students and advisees, which caused her to reconsider her own teaching from a student’s perspective.

Though her research has carried her from Japan to Italy over several decades, LeBlanc’s work carries the common thread involving a commitment to understanding how everyday people practice democracy. She points to citizen leaders, across generations, she has encountered in both countries, whose examples she hopes will resonate with W&L students navigating their own civic lives here in the U.S.

LeBlanc has been a member of the W&L faculty since 1998. She has been awarded Fulbright research fellowships three times, once as a student and twice during her time teaching at W&L. LeBlanc earned a Bachelor of Arts in English language and literature from Berry College and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Oklahoma.

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