A "Right to the City"? Rereading Lefebvre

In Paris in 2005 the UNESCO organized a seminar on "Urban Policies and the Right to the City". The idea of a Right to the City had first been developed in a 1968 book by the French philosopher Henri Lefebvre, perhaps better known among students of architecture for his book on The Production of Space (1974). We quote from a discussion paper: According to Lefebvre’s theory, the 'Right to the City' would restructure the power relations which underlie urban space, transferring control from capital and the state over to urban inhabitants. Lefebvre argued that the 'Right to the City' is the right to 'urban life, to renewed centrality, to places of encounter and exchange, to life rhythms and time uses, enabling the full and complete usage of ... moments and places.' Read more: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.