Right to the city

Leszek Kolakowski and Henri Lefebvre in 1971
Poor children from a demolished construction workers' slum look at their well-to-do neighbours in Hyderabad

The Right to the City is a concept and slogan that emphasizes the need for inclusivity, accessibility, and democracy in urban spaces. The idea was first articulated by French philosopher Henri Lefebvre in his 1968 book Le Droit à la Ville,[1][2] in which he argued that urban space should not be solely controlled by market forces, such as commodification and capitalism, but should be shaped and governed by the citizens who inhabit it.

The concept of the Right to the City has been taken up by a variety of social movements and urban activists around the world, who use it as a rallying cry for greater social justice and democracy in the urban environment. The Right to the City can encompass a variety of demands, including demands for government subsidized housing, access to public space, participation in urban governance, and laws against displacement and gentrification, all of which aim to address spatial inequalities in urban areas.[3]

  1. ^ Purcell, Mark (October 2002). "Excavating Lefebvre: The right to the city and its urban politics of the inhabitant". GeoJournal. 58 (2–3): 99–108. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.357.4200. doi:10.1023/B:GEJO.0000010829.62237.8f. JSTOR 41147756. S2CID 18096395. Pdf.
  2. ^ Unger, Knut (14 February 2009). ""Right to the City" as a response to the crisis: "Convergence" or divergence of urban social movements?". Reclaiming Spaces. Archived from the original on 10 March 2012.
  3. ^ "David Harvey: The Right to the City. New Left Review 53, September-October 2008". newleftreview.org. Retrieved 2018-06-14.