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Key research themes
1. How do legal frameworks and governance structures shape the implementation and scope of the right to the city?
This theme examines the articulation of the right to the city within legal and institutional frameworks, focusing on how laws, policies, and governance mechanisms define, enable, or constrain the right. It also explores debates about the legal status of the right to the city, its operationalization in international and national urban legal orders, and the role of participatory governance and private property regimes in mediating urban rights. Understanding these legal and governance dimensions is crucial for translating the right to the city from an abstract ideal into effective practices that promote urban justice and inclusion.
Key finding: This paper situates Lefebvre's right to the city within his broader political strategy and conceptualizes it as an oppositional demand rather than a straightforward juridical right. It argues that Lefebvre’s writings support... Read more
Key finding: The study systematically analyzes the challenges in consolidating the legal notion of the right to the city, especially within Brazil's urban legal order. It identifies key elements such as the recognition of cities as common... Read more
Key finding: By assessing South Africa's experience implementing a constitutional right to housing, this paper demonstrates both the potentials and pitfalls of legally enshrined rights in urban contexts. It finds that a narrow,... Read more
Key finding: This paper traces the evolution of the right to the city from Lefebvre’s theoretical text to its institutionalization in policy, notably in Brazil’s City Statute. It critically examines the translation of the right into... Read more
2. Who holds the right to the city, and how do ownership and social inclusion dynamics affect urban citizenship and access?
This theme delves into questions of ownership—both property and social—and their relation to the right to the city. It investigates how different actors, including property owners, residents, marginalized groups, and newcomers, claim or are excluded from rights to inhabit, shape, and participate in urban life. It also addresses the implications of private governance structures like condominiums and the distinctions between resident and non-resident property owners. These insights spotlight the socio-political negotiations over who truly holds urban rights and the spatial justice challenges in contemporary cities.
Key finding: This study of Stockholm reveals significant disparities in real estate ownership, distinguishing between local, national, and foreign owners, and analyzing property types and usage. It shows how such ownership patterns affect... Read more
Key finding: Focusing on a conflict within a Vancouver mixed-use condominium, this paper highlights condominium governance as a form of private, territorially bounded government that limits participation to property owners and excludes... Read more
Key finding: This event report discusses the contested nature of public and private rights in London’s urban spaces, emphasizing conflicts over privatized public realms and their implications for social inclusion. It evidences how... Read more
Key finding: This paper foregrounds digital rights as integral to the contemporary right to the city, arguing that control over personal data and protection against surveillance are new dimensions of urban citizenship. It assesses risks... Read more
3. How do social movements and embodied experiences articulate and perform the right to the city in practice?
This theme explores the affective, performative, and socio-political enactments of the right to the city by urban inhabitants, particularly marginalized groups. It investigates how struggles over housing, public space, and recognition translate theoretical claims into everyday practices and social movements. Attention to embodiment, participation, and difference reveals diverse ways the right to the city is claimed and contested beyond formal legal channels, emphasizing lived experiences and collective action as vital to urban justice.
Key finding: Through ethnographic research with homeless individuals in Melbourne, this paper argues that the right to the city is materially and affectively embodied through the occupation of urban spaces, embodying social struggles for... Read more
Key finding: Drawing on Henri Lefebvre's call for participatory urbanism, this paper highlights the importance of social infrastructure and participatory design practices in creating urban spaces that foster social interaction,... Read more
Key finding: Based on activist ethnography with housing rights movements in Rome, this chapter argues that contemporary manifestations of the right to the city survive as politically charged claims in response to neoliberal urbanization... Read more
Key finding: Bringing the right to difference into dialogue with the right to the city, this paper theorizes the right to a different city as a way of embracing diversity and contesting capitalist urban homogenization. It explores agents... Read more