Lefebvre for Activists

“Right to the City”: Who hasn’t heard this slogan or seen it on posters held by city dwellers threatened by gentrification and fighting back against it? We owe its originator, Henri Lefebvre, more than just the thesis that every urban space – even one gripped by homogenization and privatization – still holds revolutionary potential. With his ideas on the production of space, he also provided a “sharp theory” that bridges the gap between the academic world and activist circles.
Fifty years after his writings, the essays collected in this bilingual book aim to refine and reclaim the concept of the “Right to the City.” Alongside a critical examination of the concept of everyday life, alienation in the age of digitalization, and conceivable strategies for individual and collective appropriation of space, the book explores the interplay between urban policy, activism, and art at a time when widespread privatization, migration, and precariousness have fundamentally transformed the urban landscape and the lives of the people who inhabit it.

With contributions by Klaus Ronneberger, Christian Schmid, Christoph Schäfer, Stadt von Unten, Ulrike Hamann, Daniele Togozzi, Johanna Gilje, Uroš Pajović, Ben T. Busch, and Elisa T. Bertuzzo.