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Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution
Long before Occupy, cities were the subject of much utopian thinking. They are the centers of capital accumulation as well as of revolutionary politics, where deeper currents of social and political change rise to the surface. Do the financiers and developers control access to urban resources or do the people? Who dictates the quality and organization of daily life?
Rebel Cities places the city at the heart of both capital and class struggles, looking at locations ranging from Johannesburg to Mumbai, from New York City to São Paulo. Drawing on the Paris Commune as well as Occupy Wall Street and the London Riots, Harvey asks how cities might be reorganized in more socially just and ecologically sane ways—and how they can become the focus for anti-capitalist resistance.
Reviews
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“Whose streets? Our streets! In Rebel Cities David Harvey shows us how we might turn this slogan into a reality. That task—and this book—could hardly be more important.”
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“David Harvey provoked a revolution in his field and has inspired a generation of radical intellectuals.”
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“Challenging and timely.”
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“Forensic and ferocious.”
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“Harvey’s clarion demand [is] that it is “we”, not the developers, corporate planners, or political elites, who truly build the city, and only we who can seize back our right to its control.”
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“Intellectuals in the Occupy movement [will] appreciate Rebel Cities' descriptions of the historic and international parallel of urban struggles to reclaim public space and build culture, and be intrigued by Harvey’s musings on how to grow a lively, resilient revolutionary anticapitalist movement.”
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“A consistent intelligent voice of the left.”
Blog
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Rent Strike Weekender
The Rent Strike Collective is hosting a weekend of events from 16th-18th September at DIY Space for London to transform a spark of local movement into national collective action!
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Cities and Architecture Undergraduate Reading List
How might cities be reorganized in more socially just and ecologically sane ways? And how they can become the focus for anti-capitalist resistance?
As the housing crisis worsens in cities across the world and the inequalities of urban environments become more pronounced, a radical approach to city planning and urban development becomes even more vital and necessary.This school year get inspired by this reading list of books that propose new ways to reimagine the city and underline the need for progressive architectural and planning alternatives.
Click here to access the discount code for 50% off every title on this list!
***The sale will be ending at 12 midnight (EST) on Sunday, September 18th*** -
“The complete subjugation of urban policy”: An interview with Raquel Rolnik
Raquel Rolnik is an architect and urbanist from São Paulo. Between 2008 and 2014, she was United Nations special rapporteur for the right to adequate housing. Rolnik, a professor at the University of São Paulo, is the author of several books including a book about housing forthcoming from Verso.
Niklas Franzen's interview with Rolnik first appeared in German in Jungle World and translated by Flossie Draper.
Vila Autódromo, 2015. Via Flickr.
In your book Guerra dos Lugares (War of Places), published at the beginning of the year, you write about the worldwide “financialisation” of cities. What role does the housing market play in global capitalism?The housing market has in recent years become one of the central pillars of global financial capitalism. That has happened over the entire world — in a variety of ways. A significant process has been the fact that construction companies have opened themselves up to the flow of capital from other sectors. Furthermore, in some countries a secondary mortgage market emerged, which presented a new financial circuit. By abolishing all prospects of social housing, countries have propelled these processes. Thus the purchase of property on credit has prevailed as the only means of gaining access to housing.
