ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that under conditions of globalization large cities present unique challenges and opportunities for poverty reduction and the realization of rights. The “rights to the city” refer to specifically four generations of rights: from basic individual rights such as voting and health, household services such as housing, to neighborhood-and city-level amenities and security from warfare and environmental risks. The inexorable urbanisation of society places the city at the core of the developmental agenda of the twenty-first century. The urbanisation of poverty also underscores the imperative of downscaling the emerging debate about the developmental state to the city scale. The achievement of a rights based city will not happen with political will alone. Paradigmatic shifts and an institutional revolution in city management are required if an enabling environment for implementing the multi generational rights of the urban poor is to be realised.
