ABSTRACT
This chapter explores reasons for the enduring interest in the urban writing of Henri Lefebvre. The fifth and final reason for his lasting impact concerns the capacity of the perspectives he advanced to interpret contemporary urban issues and critique responses to the issues. In a contemporary context, the conceptual instrumentation advanced by Lefebvre serves to evaluate the evolution of present forms of urbanism from a human fulfilment and social justice perspective, and to confront current urban trajectories to his humanist vision of the city. Critical evaluations of the work of Lefebvre as well as a biography have charted the course of his intellectual pathway through most of the 20th century. A major theme that runs through the urban books of Lefebvre ties human alienation with the right to the city. It blends philosophical reflections on alienation with ways of achieving the total person, in a fashion that optimises human potential, well-being and happiness.
