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The right to the city

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  • David Harvey

Abstract

The right to the city is not merely a right of access to what already exists, but a right to change it. We need to be sure we can live with our own creations. But the right to remake ourselves by creating a qualitatively different kind of urban sociality is one of the most precious of all human rights. We have been made and re‐made without knowing exactly why, how, and to what end. How then, can we better exercise this right to the city? But whose rights and whose city? Could we not construct a socially just city? But what is social justice? Is justice simply whatever the ruling class wants it to be? We live in a society in which the inalienable rights to private property and the profit rate trump any other conception of inalienable rights. Our society is dominated by the accumulation of capital through market exchange. To live under capitalism is to accept or submit to that bundle of rights necessary for endless capital accumulation. Free markets are not necessarily fair. Worse still, markets require scarcity to function. The inalienable rights of private property and the profit rate lead to worlds of inequality, alienation and injustice. The endless accumulation of capital and the conception of rights embedded threin must be opposed and a different right to the city must be asserted politically. Derivative rights (like the right to be treated with dignity) should become fundamental and fundamental rights (of private property and the profit rate) should become derivative. But new rights can also be defined: like the right to the city which is not merely a right of access to what the property speculators and state planners define, but an active right to make the city different, to shape it more in accord with our heart's desire, and to re‐make ourselves thereby in a different image. Le droit à la ville n'est pas seulement un droit d'accès à ce qui existe déjà, mais un droit à le changer. Nous devons être sûrs de pouvoir vivre avec nos propres créations. Toutefois, le droit de nous refabriquer nous‐mêmes, en créant un type qualitativement différent de socialité urbaine, est l'un des droits humains le plus précieux entre tous. Nous avons été fabriqués et refabriqués sans savior exactement pourquoi, comment, ni à quelle fin. Alors, de quelle façon pouvons‐nous mieux exercer ce droit à la ville? Mais les droits et la ville de qui? Ne pourrions‐nous pas construire une ville socialement équitable? Mais qu'est‐ce que la justice sociale? La justice est‐elle seulement ce que la classe dirigeante veut qu'elle soit? Nous vivons dans une société où les droits inaliénables à la propriété privée et au profit évincent toute autre conception des droits inaliénables. Notre société est dominée par l'accumulation de capital via les marchés. Vivre selon le capitalisme signifie accepter ou se plier à ce lot de droits nécessaires à une accumulation sans limite du capital. Or, les marchés libres ne sont pas forcément équitables. Pire, les marchés ont besoin de pénurie pour opérer. Les droits inaliénables à la propriété privée et au profit conduisent à des univers d'inégalité, d'aliénation et d'injustice. L'accumulation infinie de capitaux et la conception de droits qui y seraient inhérents doivent être contrées, et un droit à la ville différent doit être soutenu politiquement. Les droits accessoires (comme celui d'être traité avec dignité) devraient devenir fondamentaux, et les droits fondamentaux (à la propriété privée ou au profit) devenir accessoires. On peut aussi définir de nouveaux droits: tel le droit à la ville, qui n'est pas uniquement un droit d'accès à ce que déterminent spéculateurs immobiliers et aménageurs publics, mais un droit actif à rendre la ville différente, à la configurer davantage en accord avec nos désirs intérieurs et, ainsi, à nous refabriquer nous‐mêmes dans une autre image.

Suggested Citation

  • David Harvey, 2003. "The right to the city," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(4), pages 939-941, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:ijurrs:v:27:y:2003:i:4:p:939-941
    DOI: 10.1111/j.0309-1317.2003.00492.x
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