scholarly journals Henri Lefebvre, Planning’s Friend or Implacable Critic?

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Michael E. Leary-Owhin
Keyword(s):  
Urban Planning ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Urban Society ◽  
Academic Journal ◽  
Henri Lefebvre ◽  
Production Of Space ◽  
Late 20Th Century ◽  
Global North ◽  
The Right ◽  
North And South

This is the first issue of an academic journal, of which I am aware, to focus on Henri Lefebvre and urban planning. Urban spatial planning evolved as a concept to integrate the complex social, economic, environmental, political and land use conundrums of late 20th century society. Similarly, the spatial ideas of Henri Lefebvre encompass these issues but stress the importance of everyday life, production, culture and history. This thematic issue of Urban Planning is predicated principally on three of Lefebvre’s major works: The Production of Space (Lefebvre, 1974/1991), Critique of Everyday Life (Lefebvre, 1947/1991) and The Urban Revolution (Lefebvre, 1970/2003). Lefebvre’s ideas regarding the investigation of cities and urban society have been taken up most vigorously in the fields of geography, urban studies and latterly architecture. Despite this, it is clear that Lefebvre’s five central concepts—the production of space, abstract space, everyday life, the right to the city and planetary urbanisation—provide powerful tools for the examination of urban planning, cities and urban society in the Global North and South. Anglophone urban planning first embraced Lefebvre’s ideas in the 1980s. Surprisingly then, it is only in the last ten years or so that urban planning academia and research has witnessed a blossoming of interest in Lefebvre’s ideas.

Henri Lefebvre

Urban Studies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andy Zieleniec
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Right To The City ◽  
Social Production ◽  
Henri Lefebvre ◽  
Production Of Space ◽  
The Social ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Right ◽  
The University ◽  
The City

Henri Lefebvre is now established as one of the most important social theorists of the 20th century. Over a long life (b. 1901–d. 1991) he wrote and published prodigiously more than sixty books and several hundred articles on a range of issues and themes. His legacy and lasting impact not only includes being the most influential and seminal theorist on the reprioritization of space in social and critical analysis but also recognition for his contribution to the analysis of everyday life, modernity, the Right to the City, and the urban. He continues to influence and inspire research across a number of disciplines and fields; these include rural and regional studies, sociology, geography, politics, philosophy, and urban studies. Lefebvre’s commitment Marxism; his nondogmatic and humanist approach to the definition, discussion, extension, and application of key concepts; and his integration of those concepts into his various analyses of the rural and the city, of the state, of space and politics, and of modernity and everyday life led him to a conflicted relationship and at times marginalization within the structuralist-influenced French Academy and the Communist Party of France in which he was a member for thirty years. His anti-Stalinist stance and nonconformist opposition to the structural determinism prevalent within the party led to his expulsion, but throughout the 1960s, as professor of sociology at the University of Strasbourg and latterly at the new university at Nanterre, he became one of the most respected teachers and intellectuals inspiring and influencing the May 1968 student revolt. Lefebvre’s work after that, still influenced and committed to Marxist dialectics and critique, increasingly focused on the urban, the social production of space, everyday life, modernity, and the survival of capitalism. Of these his introduction of the concept of the right to the city and the social production of space have been immensely influential for a range of urban scholars and theorists and his work as a whole is being increasingly adopted, adapted, and extended by a variety of researchers of the city in a range of disciplines. The works selected below reflect Lefebvre’s long career and extensive corpus of work. However, only those books and articles that have been translated into English are included here. They represent his exegesis of Marxism and its application to a range of themes that were applied or are important for urban analysis. The secondary literature cited is organized thematically and while not comprehensive provides an overview of the expanding literature on, about, and applying Lefebvrian analysis.

scholarly journals Sustainability and Metabolic Revolution in the Works of Henri Lefebvre

World ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 300-317
Author(s):  
Brian M. Napoletano ◽  
Brett Clark ◽  
John Bellamy Foster ◽  
Pedro S. Urquijo
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Cooperative Control ◽  
First Century ◽  
Valuable Insight ◽  
Henri Lefebvre ◽  
Production Of Space ◽  
Metabolic Rift ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Sustainable Human Development ◽  
The Right

Humanity’s present social–ecological metabolic configuration is not sustainable, and the need for a radical transformation of society to address its metabolic rifts with the rest of nature is increasingly apparent. The work of French Marxist Henri Lefebvre, one of the few thinkers to recognize the significance of Karl Marx’s theory of metabolic rift prior to its rediscovery at the end of the twentieth century, offers valuable insight into contemporary issues of sustainability. His concepts of the urban revolution, autogestion, the critique of everyday life, and total (or metabolic) revolution all relate directly to the key concerns of sustainability. Lefebvre’s work embodies a vision of radical social–ecological transformation aimed at sustainable human development, in which the human metabolic interchange with the rest of nature is to be placed under substantively rational and cooperative control by all its members, enriching everyday life. Other critical aspects of Lefebvre’s work, such as his famous concept of the production of space, his temporal rhythmanalysis, and his notion of the right to the city, all point to the existence of an open-ended research program directed at the core issues of sustainability in the twenty-first century.

scholarly journals Towards a spatialized utopia: romanticism and everyday life in the Marxism of Henri Lefebvre

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
César Simoni Santos
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Right To The City ◽  
Henri Lefebvre ◽  
Social Imagination ◽  
Critical Tradition ◽  
Revolutionary Romanticism ◽  
Practical Program ◽  
The Right ◽  
The City ◽  
Spatial Element

The presence of the spatial element in the reflections of Henri Lefebvre does not merely result from work involving the translation and adaptation of critical thinking developed up until his time. The realization that not even the highest expression of the critical tradition had sufficiently noticed this crucial dimension of life was one of the connecting points between theoretical advance, represented by the spatial orientation of critique, and the effort to renew the utopian horizon. A very distinct assimilation of the early work of Marx and the proximity to revolutionary romanticism, particularly of Nietzschean extraction, rendered a decisive impact on Lefebvrian conception. Practice, body, pleasure and instincts, recovering their place in the critical social imagination, went on to become the basis for the re-foundation of a theoretical-practical program that involved the formulation of the notion of the right to the city. The perspective of appropriation thus replaced the vague emancipatory statements of the subject's philosophies.

scholarly journals Failure matters: Reassembling eco-urbanism in a globalizing China

2017 ◽  
Vol 49 (8) ◽  
pp. 1719-1742 ◽  
Author(s):  
I-Chun Catherine Chang
Keyword(s):  
Urban Planning ◽  
Public Housing ◽  
Urban Sustainability ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Dominant Focus ◽  
Planning Software ◽  
Global North ◽  
Policy Mobilities ◽  
North And South

This paper is an attempt to reassess the role of failure in policy mobilities. Empirically, this paper examines the various aftermaths of, and the continuing trans-local connections originating from, the prominent but un-materialized Sino-British Shanghai-Dongtan eco-city—with a particular consideration on its relation with a subsequently realized project—the Sino-Singapore Tianjin eco-city. The findings reveal that despite its apparent failure, Dongtan eco-city established a set of urban planning procedures adopted by many, including those who designed and delivered the Tianjin eco-city. Meanwhile, Dongtan’s failure to materialize motivated the Chinese government to pursue collaboration with the Singaporean government over the increased involvement of private Western partners. The intent to avoid association with Dongtan’s failure also fostered a new eco-urbanism model based on rebranding the planning practices of Singapore’s public housing. Parts of Dongtan eco-city have also lived on through the international circulation of a piece of planning software that was first developed for the failed project. This paper contributes to the policy mobilities literature by challenging its dominant focus on successful exemplars and exploring how a project fails in implementation yet parts of it remain mobile, influential and present in other developments. This paper also advances the understanding of contemporary urban sustainability by revealing how eco-urbanism models are co-produced in this globalizing era between the global North and South, as well as within the global South.

scholarly journals O terror superposto: uma leitura do conceito lefebvriano de terrorismo na sociedade urbana contemporânea

2003 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
Alexandre Mendes Cunha ◽  
Frederico Canuto ◽  
Lucas Linhares ◽  
Roberto Luís Monte-Mór
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Urban Society ◽  
Henri Lefebvre ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
Terror Attacks ◽  
Noam Chomsky ◽  
Nestor Garcia Canclini

O trabalho visa introduzir o conceito de terrorismo e sociedade terrorista no pensamento de Henri Lefebvre, buscando suas relações com a realidade contemporânea. São assim apresentados alguns conceitos centrais ao pensamento lefebvriano, como vida quotidiana, sociedade burocrática do consumo dirigido e seus mecanismos de coerção, e a questão urbana pensada como espaço de abertura, desdobramento/superação da virtualidade do terrorismo contemporâneo. O texto traz considerações sobre o problema recente do terrorismo, analisando o tempo presente – e a realidade urbana em particular – como sobreposição de terrorismos: dos atentados e da lógica própria de reprodução de uma sociedade super-repressiva. O tema da abertura é discutido então a partir da inspiração lefebvriana e de um diálogo possível com trabalhos recentes de Nestor Garcia Canclini, James Holston e Noam Chomsky.Palavras-chave: terrorismo; sociedade terrorista; questão urbana; Henri Lefebvre. Abstract: The paper aims at introducing Henri Lefebvre’s concepts of terrorism and terrorist society in its relations with the contemporary world. Key Lefebvrian concepts such as everyday life and bureaucratic society of organized consumption and its coercive mechanisms, and the urban society taken as space of openness, a possibility of unfolding/overcoming virtual contemporary terrorism. The paper presents considerations about current terrorist problems by analyzing the present scenario – and the urban society in particular – as a superimposition of terrorism: terror attacks and the logic proper to the reproduction of a super-repressive society. The openness is thus discussed from both a Lefèbvrian conceptual inspiration and a possible dialogue with recent works of Nestor Garcia Canclini, James Holston, and Noam Chomsky. Keywords: terrorism; terrorist society; the urban question; Henri Lefebvre.

scholarly journals Lefebvre’s thought in contemporary urban sociology

Sociologija ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 475-491
Author(s):  
Miloje Grbin
Keyword(s):  
Urban Sociology ◽  
Right To The City ◽  
Henri Lefebvre ◽  
Production Of Space ◽  
Theoretical Assumptions ◽  
The Right ◽  
Space Production ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The City

This paper presents the impact of Henri Lefebvre?s thought in contemporary urban sociology. In the first chapter, the reader can find brief descriptions of two most relevant Lefebvre?s concepts linked to his comprehension of space: production of space, the right to the city and a couple of firmly related concepts. The second chapter presents several examples of their recent interpretations by the authors from different theoretical backgrounds. Simultaneously, it evaluates the relevance of Lefebvre?s theoretical assumptions in contemporary social context, as well as their theoretical and methodological relevance for further research and development of urban sociology. Conclusion emphasizes that Lefebvre?s ideas have a deep and long term influence in urban sociology.

scholarly journals Espaço abstrato e espaço diferencial: a compreensão do direito à cidade em Henri Lefebvre / Abstract and differential spaces: keys to understanding the right to the city in Henti Lefebvre

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 476-501
Author(s):  
Diego Coimbra Barcelos da Silva ◽  
Cleide Calgaro ◽  
Ricardo Hermany
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Urban Society ◽  
Right To The City ◽  
Abstract Space ◽  
Henri Lefebvre ◽  
Angle Of View ◽  
The Right ◽  
Differential Spaces ◽  
Capitalist Ideology ◽  
The City

ResumoO presente trabalho possui o objetivo de fornecer uma visão panorâmica acerca das ancoragens teóricas da noção de direito à cidade, enquanto projeto orientador de uma hipótese virtual e possível, definida como sociedade urbana. Para tanto, através da revisão bibliográfica, recorre-se à reflexão acerca de alguns elementos, cuja análise se mostra fundamental para a delimitação do campo teórico em que o pensamento se constrói, na obra de Henri Lefebvre, especialmente no que concerne às categorias espaço abstrato e espaço diferencial. Conclui-se que a partir do estudo da obra de Lefebvre que o direito a cidade se constitui em um espaço de investigação onde é possível pensar os processos históricos assumidos em diferentes escalas até chegar a atualidade. Deste modo, o direito à cidade é adequado e objetiva fundir os conflitos e os processos urbanos com a produção do conhecimento socioespacial, permitindo a transformação do saber e da realidade da urbe.Palavras-chave: Henri Lefebvre; direito à cidade; sociedade urbana; espaço abstrato; espaço diferencial. AbstractThis article aims to provide a different angle of view about the theoretical anchors of the original notion of the right to the city, in Henri Lefebvre. Therefore, through literature review, of a qualitative-exploratory character, a dialectical reflection about the characteristics of the right to the city project is used, from the perspective of the spatial theory developed by the author at a later point in his work. Within this scope, and for the purposes of this study, the notions of “abstract space” and “differential space” were especially taken as analytical categories. In constant mobilization, these phenomena interact dialectically, and constitute the fundamental antithesis between domination and appropriation of the city, whose scan is promising for a particular understanding of the theoretical field in which the project of the right to the city is built on the work of Lefebvre. This analysis results in the understanding of the right to the city as a claim, which is established in the conflictive dialectic between two socio-spatial segments, present since the modern city: the abstract space, where the reason of State, the law and the capitalist ideology are allied in the project of homogenization of the society, and the differential space, founded on social relations rooted in the forms of using spaces that express ways of life that are resistant to the logic of capital.Keywords: Henri Lefebvre; right to the city; urban society; abstract space; differential space.

scholarly journals How can Urban Planners Address Emerging Zoonoses? A Scoping Review of Recommended Interventions

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vignesh Murugesan
Keyword(s):  
Urban Planning ◽  
Scoping Review ◽  
Green Space ◽  
Review Process ◽  
Web Of Science ◽  
Zoonotic Diseases ◽  
Emerging Zoonoses ◽  
Global North ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
North And South

Emerging zoonotic diseases (EZD) like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), COVID-19, and Ebola have highlighted the need for incorporating emerging zoonoses considerations in urban planning practice. To mainstream EZD in urban planning, this scoping review collates recommendations from across disciplines to provide directions to city planners and policymakers. A search of published literature examining the relationship between EZD and urban planning or policymaking was conducted in February 2020 using PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus. Thirty-six articles were identified by the review process and the research examining the relationship between urban planning and EZD was found to be limited but expanding. In identified articles, recommendations for planners were found to address various areas and aspects of planning like inter-disciplinary collaboration, social justice, built environment, climate change adaptation, urbanization, sanitation, green space and economic planning. The applicability of these recommendations to global north and south cities is also discussed.

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