"The Right to the City"

Cities are not simply the products of human decisions and actions; cities shape most aspects of our daily lives. But to what degree does the average city dweller have any say over how the city provides for her needs? Who has the right to the city? By the “right to the city,” Harvey is referring to claims made by social groups possessing unequal power to shape and have say over the process of urbanization (as discussed more fully in the earlier reading by Harvey). From the onset of the earliest cities, urbanization has been a class phenomenon, with the wealthier classes controlling the shape and form of the urban landscape. Throughout modern history, the right to the city has been entwined with property rights and related economic interests tied to the accumulation of capital. But the free market has (re)produced only greater disparities between socioeconomic classes, as well as producing monopoly interests with greater levels of power. Today, the right to the city is held largely in the hands of political and economic elites who are in the position to shape the city according to their own interests. Harvey rejects the inevitability of this condition and calls for a different right to the city to be asserted. His prescriptions are briefly outlined in the reading. Changes can be brought to the city, but they require political organization and demonstration (sometimes brought to the streets of the city itself). With social action, city dwellers come to realize the significance of the right to the city trumps the right to accumulate capital (and reproduce inequality) held among elites. To create or imagine this new city Harvey implores that we must not just reimagine the city itself but the politics and economics within the city.