ABSTRACT
Building from the definition of urbanism as the study of the physical needs of urban societies, the author highlights the importance of those needs and activities that are necessarily communal and cannot be reproduced and managed at the individual or small-scale local level and which sustain dwelling in the city. With the rise of capitalism and the accompanying commodification of space at a global scale, urbanism has prioritised the market value of both land and housing. Presently, urbanisation processes are dominated by one political-economic trend influencing urbanisation processes across the planet: neoliberalisation and three of its most fundamental and interrelated consequences on urban centres: privatisation, commodification and individualism. Social mobilisation was geared towards obtaining land titles and basic services and, once those demands are met, communal organisation and mobilisation is greatly debilitated. Klinenberg defines social infrastructure as the physical places and organisations that “shape the way people interact” and that “determine whether social capital.
