An international dialogue on the production of alternative urban spaces

The task that remains is to harness the multiplicity of voices thus engendered by staging an international dialogue on the production of alternative urban spaces. The very reasonable demand for inclusion on the part of urban dwellers is at the heart of the Lefebvrian call for the right to the city, identified precisely as a right ‘of all those who inhabit’. Extra-discursive struggles also play key roles in asserting the right of inhabitants to actively produce their own urban spaces of dwelling. Urban interstitiality thus becomes more visible where majoritarian spaces are particularly strong and monolithic, because the urban interstice in such settings appears in an exceptionally contrasting light. Taken together, alternative urban spaces of work, exchange, and consumption are key ingredients in the development of diverse urban economies. The chapter also presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book.