Displacement, Social Justice, and the Right to the City: A Review and Critical Reflections in the 21st Century

Abstract

This paper aims to review the literature and themes relating to displacement, social justice, and the right to the city in the 21st century. Displacement, in its various forms, is central to understanding the human rights abuses and livelihood implications when urban rights are revoked, forcing inhabitants to the periphery, and is the focus of this paper. Whereas the city’s services, resources, and opportunities should be a collective right advanced by local authorities for all who occupy urban space, displacements lead to resettlement and impoverishment, especially as livelihoods are disrupted. Urban renewal, through mega-projects, clean-up campaigns, and speculative gentrification processes, violates human rights when the poor are displaced in the periphery. Such displacements are often a product of the neoliberal assault. There are social justice, economic, and cultural implications as their urban rights are revoked. The focus on rights is partly owed to philosophers such as Henri Lefebvre and geographers such as David Harvey who have pioneered works on the right to the city and social justice, respectively. The struggle for social justice can be viewed as a moral claim for the realization and advancement of human rights in the city.

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