The right to the city during gentrification

2020 ◽  
pp. 166-186
Author(s):  
Klisala Harrison
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Urban Poor ◽  
Urban Neighborhoods ◽  
Right To The City ◽  
Music Theater ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Downtown Eastside ◽  
Complete Obliteration ◽  
The Right ◽  
The City

As important and sometimes troubling as the previously described music projects can be, they are threatened with complete obliteration during gentrification in such socioeconomically depressed urban neighborhoods as the Downtown Eastside. Gentrification transforms a socioeconomically depressed urban area for middle- and upper-class use. As urban poor are displaced, this threatens their right to the city, which refers to their abilities to exercise the human rights involved in living in their chosen city area. At the same time, funding becomes more available for capability building through the arts and for professional arts. Resultantly, popular music theater has flourished during the gentrification of the Downtown Eastside. What has been the role of urban poor, and particularly participants in jams and music therapy, in the music theater productions? Which human rights regarding the right to the city have those performances supported for urban poor?

Music in urban poverty

2020 ◽  
pp. 6-30
Author(s):  
Klisala Harrison
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Human Development ◽  
Urban Poor ◽  
Urban Poverty ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Urban Neighborhoods ◽  
Capability Development ◽  
Music Making ◽  
Downtown Eastside ◽  
Broad Array

In urban contexts internationally, organizations, administrators, culture workers, artists and academics put vast effort into facilitating music and other arts in attempt to alleviate “poverty.” Poverty, according to recent definitions, refers to a broad array of social deprivations. These include deprivations of entitlements, which are widely understood as rights, and deprivations of human development, of which capability development is an example. Drawing on two decades of ethnographic field research in one of Canada’s poorest urban neighborhoods, Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, this book asks: Which kinds of capabilities are developed via music initiatives in the Downtown Eastside, and, particularly, what is their relationship with human rights? Are specific human rights promoted, strengthened, threatened, violated, and respected in music-making by urban poor?

“The Right-To-The-City Question” and Indigenous Urban Populations in Capital Cities in Cameroon

2016 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 188-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ambe J Njoh
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
Indigenous Population ◽  
Right To The City ◽  
Urban Residents ◽  
Capital Cities ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Universal Human Rights ◽  
The Right ◽  
The City

This paper explores the implications of state land tenure modernization and urbanization-promotion initiatives for human rights in Cameroon. The aim is to promote understanding of the implications of these initiatives for the right-to-the-city of indigenous urban residents. It is argued that the implications are more severe in politico-administrative headquarters than elsewhere in the country. Three different cities have served, at some point, as national politico-administrative headquarters in Cameroon, the study’s empirical referent. The designation of any city as a politico-administrative headquarters invariably creates a land scarcity problem in that city. The problem is aggravated for the city’s indigenous population by colonial and post-colonial planning policies. For this reason, the policies are said to be in violation of basic human rights as stipulated by the UN Declaration of Universal Human Rights as well as the African Charter.

Placemaking and the right to the city of urban poor: a case studyin Sanandaj, Iran

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 508-528
Author(s):  
Kayoumars Irandoost ◽  
Milad Doostvandi ◽  
Todd Litman ◽  
Mohammad Azami
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Urban Poor ◽  
Informal Settlements ◽  
Right To The City ◽  
Social Production ◽  
Production Of Space ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Right ◽  
The City

Purpose This paper aims to present a critical analysis of placemaking by the urban poor based on the Right to the City, Henri Lefebvre’s influential theory regarding the production of space and placemaking. Design/methodology/approach This study reflects Lefebvre’s production of space and the right to the city theories and containing three main pillars including holism, the urban and praxis, and the use of spatial dialectics. Also, for collecting information in this research, along with scrutiny of documents and books, residents of the poor settlements of Sanandaj have also been interviewed. Findings In Sanandaj, urban poor who lack formal housing reclaim the Right to City by creating informal settlements. Such settlements, such as Shohada, Baharmast and Tagh Taghan, cover 23% of the city’s area but house 69% of the urban population. Originality/value This research seeks to understand placemaking in urban slums by low-income inhabitants using Henry Lefebvre’s critical theory of social production of space and the Right to the City. This case study examines the city of Sanandaj, Iran, where most residents are poor and live in cooperative informal settlements. It illustrates how the urban poor, as marginalized inhabitants, overcome the constraints of conventional planning and property ownership to creatively and cooperatively develop communities that reflect their needs. This indicates a schism between formal and informal sectors.

On Marx’s human significance, Harvey’s right to the city, and Nussbaum’s capability approach

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 345-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Basta
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Political Liberalism ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Planning Theory ◽  
Right To The City ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Human Capability ◽  
The Right ◽  
The City

In this article, I juxtapose David Harvey’s idea of the ‘right to the city’ and Martha Nussbaum’s central human capability of ‘control over one’s environment’, and I approach them from the perspective of their mutual convergence on Marx’s conception of human significance. In particular, I compare how Marx’s conception reverberates in Harvey’s right to the city as human right and in Nussbaum’s control over the environment as central human capability. I discuss how the language of capabilities through which the latter scholar articulates her political liberalism offers ‘important supplementations’ to the language of human rights through which the former scholar articulates his critical discourse. I conclude that the evaluative character of Nussbaum’s capability approach could advance a novel stream in planning theory centred on human development. To elaborate on such potential, I propose the notion of people’s ‘urban functionings’, and I discuss how this notion could provide new interpretative lenses through which to renew the idea of ‘right to the city’.

scholarly journals EL DERECHO A LA CIUDAD CON PERSPECTIVA DE GÉNERO (THE RIGHT TO THE CITY WITH A GENDER PERSPECTIVE)

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (15) ◽  
pp. 104-131
Author(s):  
Claudia Elena Robles Cardoso ◽  
Carlos Muñiz Díaz
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Population Group ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Right To The City ◽  
Gender Perspective ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
The Public ◽  
Derechos Humanos ◽  
The Right ◽  
The City

Resumen: Las ciudades como catalizadores de derechos humanos han asumido la tarea fundamental de proveer el bienestar esencial para los ciudadanos. La responsabilidad de garantizar el derecho a la ciudad se ha abordado sin tomar en cuenta las diferentes necesidades que cada grupo poblacional requiere, en específico se ha omitido la perspectiva de género como un elemento fundamental para las políticas públicas de las ciudades, haremos un breve recorrido por la forma tan distinta en que hombres y mujeres viven las ciudades, así como las grandes deudas que requiere asumir el derecho a la ciudad.Palabras clave: Derecho a la Ciudad, Perspectiva de Género, Empoderamiento, Mujer, Seguridad y Movilidad. Abstract: Cities as catalysts for human rights have assumed the fundamental task of providing essential well-being for citizens. The responsibility of guaranteeing the right to the city has been addressed without taking into account the different needs that each population group requires, specifically the gender perspective has been omitted as a fundamental element for the public policies of the cities, we will take a brief tour because of the very different way in which men and women live in cities, as well as the large debts required to assume the right to the city.Keywords: Right to the City, Gender Perspective, Empowerment, Women, Security and Mobility.

Financing Low-income Housing in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe: Implications for the Right to the City and Inclusivity

2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-48
Author(s):  
Average Chigwenya
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Financial Services ◽  
Urban Poor ◽  
Housing Demand ◽  
Right To The City ◽  
Financial Conditions ◽  
Low Incomes ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Right ◽  
The City

Abstract Accessing finances for housing has been a major problem for people on low-incomes and this has been weighing heavily on them as they try to access housing. Financial institutions in the city of Bulawayo are failing to come up with financial products that suit low-income clients. There are an estimated 110000 low-income residents among the estimated 250000 residents of Cowdray Park low-density residential area in Bulawayo. This has also affected their right to the city as they have been excluded from the housing delivery system. There are so many initiatives that have been available to those on a low-income but these initiatives have rarely benefited the urban poor of the city. This research has examined how the financial services that exist in the housing sector have been crafted to benefit the urban poor. The research employed a mixed methods approach to the inquiry, where a questionnaire was the main quantitative method used and in-depth interviews and observations were the qualitative methods that complemented it. The research found that there are various financial services that are available in Zimbabwe, but these financial facilities rarely help the urban poor. The majority of the poor have been managing without any financial support and this has been stalling their access to housing. Most housing products are fashioned along neo-liberal economic principles that have very little to offer the urban poor. This has therefore denied the urban poor in the city of Bulawayo their right to the city. Most cities in Zimbabwe are struggling to satisfy their housing demand as they have long housing waiting lists. Research therefore recommends the crafting of financial facilities that are best targeted on the urban poor, and are specially adapted to their financial conditions.

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