Right to the City: Neoliberal Urbanization and Class Struggle

Henri Lefebvre's striking analyses and accurate predictions regarding the functioning of capital-space interaction in the capitalist mode of production elevate him to a unique position. The distinction he defined and analyzed between "ville" (city as a place of human interaction) and "cité" (city as an urban space) addresses the urban problem of capitalism in all its dimensions. This distinction is noteworthy in that it differentiates between the 'ville', which is predicated on use-value and appropriation, and possesses a quality independent of processes of determination, domination, and exploitation, and the 'cité', where these processes are concretized on a global scale, destroy unique qualities, and transform into a tool for the reproduction of capital with all its elements. Lefebvre's quest for solutions, conceptualized as the right to the city, thus gains concrete form through this distinction.

The conceptualization of the right to the city stands out as a key element for both understanding the problems generated/reproduced by production relations and observed at economic, social, political, and spatial levels, and for formulating the revolutionary transformation that will eliminate these problems and, as a whole, capitalist production relations.

The main assertion of this book is that the concept of the right to the city corresponds to a theoretical roadmap for a revolution conditional on overcoming capitalism. It bases this assertion on Lefebvre's arguments and conceptualizations regarding space-capital, everyday life, and practices of social struggle. In doing so, it illuminates the points of conflict between the unique qualities of the city and the fundamental laws inherent in capitalism, which became even more visible with neoliberal policies and were successfully predicted and analyzed by Lefebvre. The claim that the realization of the right to the city means the elimination of capitalist production relations is justified with its theoretical and practical dimensions.