Exploring the contours of the right to the city

Abstract

This chapter suggests that an alternative to anodyne formulations lies in a rethinking of the relationships between abstraction, appropriation and utopia. One of most compelling and influential elements of Henri Lefebvre theory of the production of space is his portrait of abstract space as mode of spatial production generated by contemporary capitalism. The chapter deals with Lefebvre account of abstract space as the dominant mode of spatial production within contemporary capitalism and highlights alternative form of differential space, which he envisages as emerging from within the contradictions of abstract space. While abstract space is the dominant mode of spatial production within contemporary capitalism, it carries within it seeds of an alternative form of space, which is based on appropriation and the defence of use values. The chapter also suggests that the right to city can be understood as crucial political and social form through which struggles for the production of differential space may be waged.

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