scholarly journals Hidden geographies of social justice in an urban environment: the particularities of naturally-occurring arts districts

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter KUMER ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Right To The City ◽  
Mutual Support ◽  
Four Dimensions ◽  
Cultural Workers ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
Arts Districts ◽  
Third Dimension ◽  
The Right ◽  
The City

Despite extensive research on the role arts districts play in the economic development of cities, little is known about the dynamics of social interactions within those districts and their impact on society. Drawing on 26 interviews with actors and stakeholders of arts districts in Ljubljana, this paper explores the role of arts districts in creating a just city. Four dimensions of such districts, which represent the meaningful themes that emerged from the data, are examined. The first dimension is the interrelationship of artists, cultural workers and activists. The second dimension encompasses mutual support and forms of self-governance, whereas the third dimension investigates the role arts districts play in the neighbourhood. The fourth dimension seeks to define the role of arts districts as part of urban development generally driven by capital. The results show that arts districts are important in the struggle for the right to the city. Actors from these districts are committed to addressing the causes of social inequality at their root via artist-led civic engagement activities.

Constitutions and the Metropolis

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-77
Author(s):  
Ran Hirschl
Keyword(s):  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Right To The City ◽  
Constitutional Theory ◽  
Four Dimensions ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Catch Up ◽  
The Right ◽  
The City ◽  
Spatial Governance

Extensive urbanization and the consequent rise of megacities are among the most significant demographic phenomena of our time. Our constitutional institutions and constitutional imagination, however, have not even begun to catch up with the new reality. In this article, I address four dimensions of the great constitutional silence concerning the metropolis: ( a) the tremendous interest in cities throughout much of the social sciences, as contrasted with the meager attention to the subject in constitutional theory and practice; ( b) the right to the city in theory and practice; ( c) a brief account of what national constitutions actually say about cities, and more significantly what they do not; and ( d) the dominant statist stance embedded in national constitutional orders, in particular as it addresses the sovereignty and spatial governance of the polity, as a main explanatory factor for the lack of vibrant constitutional discourse concerning urbanization in general and the metropolis in particular.

Identifying path-breaking transitions for Kenya’s marginalised communities in water and sanitation provision

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 689-699
Author(s):  
Wairimu Maina ◽  
Andre van Graan
Keyword(s):  
Pathway Analysis ◽  
Social Innovation ◽  
Right To The City ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Case Study Design ◽  
Government Institutions ◽  
The Right ◽  
The City

Purpose This paper aims to illustrate relationships between stakeholders in the conceptualisation and implementation of water and sanitation services (WSS) projects in marginalised settings of Nairobi and Kiambu Counties. It outlines these relationships in a flow diagram that shows a pathway analysis in which social innovation strategies are used as markers in the program of inclusive water provision. The study’s objective is to map the processes of social innovation in an effort to highlight the role of marginalised communities in their access to the right to water. Design/methodology/approach The paper approached the study using a case study design, and thereafter, constructivist grounded theory was used to further delve into the comparative cases. To map the processes of social innovation, the case study design was seen to be appropriate, as it sequenced activities in a time-series analysis. From these two case studies, four comparative cases were used to pinpoint path-breaking transition in the pathway analysis. The methods used in both phases were, namely, in-depth interviews, observations and document analysis, and these were complemented by field notes. Findings The paper indicates an opportunity to use emergent patterns for a more context-specific analysis of WSS projects in marginalised communities. It advances the role of marginalised communities as vital stakeholders in the approach described as “the right to the city”. The model of spatial appropriation brings to the fore the binary yet separate processes that stakeholders engage in. Research limitations/implications Owing to the use of a grounded theory model, the results may not be transferable to other contexts. Therefore, further testing of the proposed pathway analysis and model is encouraged, as this model suggests ways of ensuring full community engagement which would result in greater success in projects involving marginalised communities. Practical implications The paper has implications for both the government and communities, in that more deliberate roles for the community-based organisation in the conceptualisation of WSS projects can lead to social learning opportunities for government institutions and greater success in implementation. Originality/value The paper justifies the need for government institutions to map and evaluate WSS projects using emergent patterns to highlight the role of marginalised communities as their right to the city.

When social movements collaborate with the state towards the right to the city: Unveiling compromises and conflicts

2021 ◽  
pp. 0308518X2098161
Author(s):  
Morgana G Martins Krieger ◽  
Marlei Pozzebon ◽  
Lauro Gonzalez
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
The State ◽  
Right To The City ◽  
Exchange Value ◽  
Building Housing ◽  
Governmental Institutions ◽  
The Right ◽  
Operational Processes ◽  
The City

The right to the city represents a critique of the city as a place and an object of capitalist accumulation, in which priority is given to exchange value over use value. This critique references an ongoing and collective struggle for urban production to be radically democratic, as the expanded participation of city users would lead to appropriation, with social movements occupying a central role. This paper discusses the practices of urban social movements that cooperate with governmental institutions participating in and influencing the design and implementation of public policies. We focus on the possibilities of transformation towards the right to the city as well as the conflicts and contradictions that social movements face when partnering with the State. We carry out an in-depth investigation of two social movements involved in building housing units in Brazil as part of a federal government programme. By conceptually translating the right to the city into the economies of worth, we propose an original theoretical approach. Our study contributes to advance the understanding of the role of social movements that collaborate with governments without abandoning the goal of struggling for the right to the city. We add a pragmatic perspective to the radical conception of the right to the city by showing how different logics of action enable or hinder the possibility of the right to the city horizon. We propose that the prominence of the civic common world might transform operational processes mainly through self-management.

Regenerating Former Military Sites in Italy. The Dichotomy between ‘Profit-Driven Spaces’ and ‘Urban Commons’

Global Jurist ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Federico Camerin
Keyword(s):  
Armed Force ◽  
Right To The City ◽  
Italian Case ◽  
Public Resources ◽  
The Right ◽  
Urban Commons ◽  
The City ◽  
Severe Shortage ◽  
Regeneration Processes

Abstract Within the last decades, the reorganisation of the Armed Force left many voids in the territories. Being located in highly lucrative and desirable locations, former military sites can be redeveloped into either profit-driven spaces or proper urban commons. This paper focuses the attention on the Italian case and scrutinises former military barracks in the dichotomies between the generation of profit-driven spaces and urban commons. Also, the analysis questions the actual role of these voids in guaranteeing the right to the city, especially in times of severe shortage of public resources to undertake urban regeneration processes.

scholarly journals The Place of Social Citizenship and Property Rights in Brazil’s ‘Right to the City’ Debate

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 307-318 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abigail Friendly
Keyword(s):  
Property Rights ◽  
Reform Movement ◽  
Right To The City ◽  
Social Citizenship ◽  
Urban Social Movements ◽  
The Social ◽  
Urban Transformations ◽  
The Right ◽  
The City

There has been considerable attention on Brazil’s experience in applying the right to the city, influencing the urban reform movement and subsequent legislation including the 1988 Constitution and the 2001 Statute of the City. While much is known about Brazil’s urban transformations, this article views this trajectory within debates on social citizenship, expanding the focus to show that property is integral to this debate. Through the lens of social citizenship, property rights and insurgency, this article traces Brazil’s right to the city debate through a focus on three issues: (1) the rights dimension of such debates; (2) the role of the social function of property in urban legislation; and (3) the role of insurgent planning evident in urban social movements. While property rights and land rights are often distanced from debates on social citizenship, the Brazil case provides evidence in which the two are clearly intertwined.

scholarly journals Diversity and Opportunity in a Good City Making, Learning from Informal Settlement in Yogyakarta-Indonesia

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Nelza Mulki Iqbal
Keyword(s):  
Social Problem ◽  
Good Life ◽  
Informal Settlement ◽  
Right To The City ◽  
The Good Life ◽  
Current Perspective ◽  
The Right ◽  
The City

The Greek thinker Aristotle ever tried to explain cities phenomenon by mentioning that a good life can be founded in the togetherness of city living. Nevertheless, today’s fact there is no city has ever meant the good life for all its inhabitants. It becomes harder and harder to define a good life inside the city, as well as looking what makes a good city in current perspective. Cities are now seen at best as a great social problem and at worst as utopian city solution that yet never come. That makes sense that the concept of making good city is debatable, and somehow it is very subjective. Starting with an explanation of the period when a good city notion emerged, this essay will try to analyze in a very brief manner the discourses between physical and non-physical strategies to develop a good city notion. Afterwards, it will be extended to the role of opportunity to build a future good city. The opportunity will be in line with the concept of the right to the city, which originally based on Henri Lefebvre’s Theory (Lefebvre, 1996). Staying back to the musing between what is good and what is bad, this essay is trying to investigate what is reasoning behind good or bad and how to solve it. Then, it will be navigated to how people can deal with the bad condition of the city and solving their problem as a part of their right. The notions of a good city, however, belong to the residents. What city needs the most was a most intricate and close-grained diversity of uses that give each other constant mutual supports (Jacobs, 1961). The cases of Kampung Code in Yogyakarta, which was the winner of Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 1992 will be highlighted to be an example of how people are dealing with their bad condition, struggling on their right and taking the opportunity given.

scholarly journals The city as a common good

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (72) ◽  
Author(s):  
Camila Marques Paes da Cunha ◽  
Luciana Márcia Gonçalves
Keyword(s):  
Common Good ◽  
Social Role ◽  
Right To The City ◽  
Production Mode ◽  
The Social ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Right ◽  
Municipal Autonomy ◽  
The City

The contemporary urbanization process in Brazil is directly related to the dynamics of the capitalist production mode. In this production mode the urban land, as well as habitation, become commodities – individual or collective consumer goods. With the increase in municipal autonomy back in the 1990s, along with the approval of the Statue of Cities in 2001, new tools for organization of urban territory and production of habitations were created. This work makes a brief analysis of the right to city’s trajectory, since the creation of such concept by Henri Lefebvre in the 1960s, until the concept’s appropriation by Brazilian legislation. Through bibliographical review, it relates the social role of property as means to grant the right to the city.

scholarly journals Social Innovation in the Built Environment: The Challenges Presented by the Politics of Space

Urban Science ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Donagh Horgan ◽  
Branka Dimitrijević
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Built Environment ◽  
Social Innovation ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Right To The City ◽  
Resilient Communities ◽  
Politics Of Space ◽  
The Right ◽  
The City

This paper reports on social innovation systems for building resilient communities within different social and political contexts across four continents. It considers how social innovation in the built environment occurs over phases of network, framework and architecture and explores the linkages with the study of sustainability and resilience. It tracks the emergence of social innovation in response to social, economic and environmental challenges through nine case studies, using ethnography to probe the barriers and enablers of social innovation. Findings reveal the role that politics and ideological governance levers play in planning for sustainable, inclusive communities. An overview of the role of architecture in the politics of space from literature review is provided based both on historical and contemporary sources. Modern commentators who build on concepts such as the ‘Right to the city’ are considered, in the study of how networks can collaborate on frameworks for change that enable social equity in the built environment. Political themes have laid a foundation for both the literature review and investigation in the field—looking to enlightened policy, such as that based around the Right to the city, which may offer a theoretical framework for communities to effect planning and decision-making.

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