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The Right to the City: Empowering Urban Inhabitants for Democratic Change

Explore the movements and concepts empowering citizens for democratic urban transformation, from Syntagma Square in Athens to Lefebvre's ideas.

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The Right to the City: Empowering Urban Inhabitants for Democratic Change

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  1. The Right to the CityMark PurcellDepartment of Urban Design & PlanningUniversity of Washington, USA

  2. “For a long time decisions have been made for us, without consulting us. We…have come to Syntagma Square… because we know that the solutions to our problems can only be provided by us. We call all residents of Athens…and all of society to fill the public squares and to take their lives into their own hands.  In these public squares we will shape our claims and our demands together.” Syntagma Square, Athens Puerta del Sol, Madrid Que se vayan todos No nos representan

  3. Two Approaches Liberal-Democratic Approach Lefebvre’s Approach Use rights of inhabitants over Property rights of owners Use value of urban space over Exchange value of urban space

  4. Liberal-Democratic Rights Montreal Charter of Rights and Responsibilities Mexico City Charter for the Right to the City City Statute in Brazil Right to the City Alliance in USA European Charter for Human Rights in the City World Charter for the Right to the City Liberal Democracy Elections, parties, laws, state institutions Guaranteed by the State Public/Private Rights as protection of individual liberty Addition to existing lists of rights Legal strategies Rights as ends

  5. Lefebvre’s Right to the City 1901-1991 French Communist Party Stalinism Paris, 1968 Radical democracy beyond the state and beyond capitalism

  6. New Contract of Citizenship Right to information Right to difference Right to autogestion Right to the city

  7. AutogestionSelf-management Dictatorship of the proletariat Contract is a point of departure for a renewal of political life In which people become active and appropriate their own power Deepening of democracy Withering away of the state and of capitalist social relations

  8. Industrial city • Industrial City • Private property, exchange value • Separation, segregation, homogenization • Passive and isolated consumers • Habitat • Commodities, production, consumption • Economic growth • Oligarchy: managed by elites The neoliberal city The Society of the Spectacle

  9. Urban society • Industrial City • Private property, exchange value • Separation, segregation, homogenization • Passive and isolated consumers • Habitat • Commodities, production, consumption • Economic growth • Oligarchy: managed by elites The neoliberal city The Society of the Spectacle • Urban Society • Inhabitants appropriate urban space, use value • Interaction, encounter, collective politics • Together-in-difference • L’inhabiter • Creation (poiesis) • Human development (free development of each…) • Democracy: managed by all inhabitants Urban autogestion

  10. Commonality and Difference Inhabitants/Users as: not-capitalist-consumers not-state-subjects

  11. A Practicable Utopia Extrapolate a possible world from actual practices It helps us see the possible in the actual Right to the city as a point of departure; opens a path toward urban society

  12. “Seek and learn to recognize who and what, in the midst of inferno, are not inferno, and help them endure, give them space.” --Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities

  13. The inferno of the living is not something that will be. If there is one, it is that which is already here, the inferno that we inhabit every day, that we create by being together. There are two ways to escape suffering it. The first is easy for most: accept the inferno and become such a complete part of it that you no longer know it is there. The second is risky and requires vigilance and continuous attention: seek and learn to recognize who and what, in the midst of inferno, are not inferno, and help them endure, give them space. —Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities (1972), p. 164)

  14. L'inferno dei viventi non è qualcosa che sarà; se ce n'è uno, è quello che è già qui, l'inferno che abitiamo tutti i giorni, che formiamo stando insieme. Due modi ci sono per non soffrirne. Il primo riesce facile a molti: accettare l'inferno e diventarne parte fino al punto di non vederlo più. Il secondo è rischioso ed esige attenzione e apprendimento continui: cercare e saper riconoscere chi e che cosa, in mezzo all'inferno, non è inferno, e farlo durare, e dargli spazio. Italo Calvino, Le Città Invisibili, 1972

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