The Right to the City by Harvey - Annotated Bibliography Example

Name Class Unit Harvey, D. 2008, 'The right to the city', New Left Review, Vol.53, Sept/Oct, pp.23-40. The article by David Harvey looks at the capitalist process and the way in which the city has acted as the space for investing the surplus capital. According to this article, this is done by the use of constant construction boom which can be in the infrastructure or housing sector. According to the paper, the author claims that the global crisis had a big impact on some of the cities globally. This is because the cities were highly implicated by the conditions which led to the crisis. The cities affected by the global crisis are now offering an opportunity to what is defined as marginalised classes who are expected to come together and control the surpluses which come out at the expense of these cities. According to the author, uniting of the marginalised globally can have the ability to demand a human right in the city which is beyond gaining access to individual urban resources. This is an article that looks at recreating ourselves as we recreate our cities which is an addition to having higher values of equality and social justice. According to the author, we are living in a world where the right of the property has been trumping on all other types of rights. In this paper, another form of right defined as a human right is explored. The author also looks whether the rapid urbanisation of the last hundred years has enhanced human wellbeing. The right to the city according to the author is more than just the individual liberty in accessing the city resources. It has the right to change ourselves while at the same time changing the city. The author claims this is a more of a common right as opposed to being an individual right. This is because the expected transformation is based on collective power with an aim of changing the urbanisation process. According to Harvey, the freedom to remake our cities is one of the most left out and ignored human rights despite its importance. For the capitalism to survive, the surplus they produce must be absorbed. The author looks at capitalism as a class phenomenon where the surplus is extracted from someone somewhere, and the control of their disbursement is given to few people. Urbanisation is based on the ability to mobilise the surplus produced. This creates a connection between urbanisation and capitalism. The surplus that is produced by capitalism has to be reinvested to have surplus value. This reinvestment according to the author leads to an expansion of surplus production based on a compound rate. This has been paralleled by the growth of urbanisation during the capitalism period. According to Harvey, we live in conflict prone and divided urban areas. This is where the class power has been restored to the rich. The current cities are made up of fortified segments, consisting of gated communities and the public places have been privatised. There is private redistribution which occurs through criminal activity. Despite this, there have been social forces in urban centres trying to overcome the existing isolation and reshape the urban based on a different image from the current one. Dispossession According to the author, surplus absorption based on urban transformation is associated with a darker aspect. This is where creative destruction occur based on bouts of urban reconstruction. This always has a class dimension as those who suffer most are the poor marginalised and the under-privileged. To come up with a new world from the wreckage of the old, violence is involved. This can be seen where slums are cleared for urban development. The capital accumulated through the real estate booms is high since in most cases, the land is obtained at a very low cost. Often, those displaced are not compensated hence dispossessed. Formulating demands The urbanisation process has played a very vital role in ensuring that the capital surplus is absorbed. Despite this, there is a price of creative destruction where the mass is dispossessed and denied the right to the city. If those affected came together, they could demand an increase in democratic control on production and utilisation of the surplus. This is because urban process acts as the main channel for utilisation of surplus, having democratic management on the urban deployment is what right to the city is made of. The author sees that the main way of unifying struggles is adopting the right to the city. This is through making it both a working slogan and a political ideal. This is due to fact that it can focus on who controls the vital connection which occurs between urbanisation and the utilisation of surplus production. Through democratisation of right to the city and coming up with strong social movements which can enforce, it’s possible for those dispossessed to take back control of what they have lost. It will also be possible for the dispossessed to come up with new modes of urbanisation and institute them. To sum up, the revolution has to be based on urban based on its broadest sense. Fenster, T. 2005, ‘Gender and the city: the different formations of belonging’, in Nelson, L. & Seager, J. (eds.), A Companion to Feminist Geography, Oxford, Blackwell, pp.242-257. This is a chapter written by Tovi Fenster, and looks at the formations that are gendered in belonging as expressed by men and women in their daily routines in the city. The chapter looks at the existing expressions of belonging which have been built on various definitions of citizenship and dimensions of belonging based on the individual religion and national attachment. In addition, it also emphasizes on the types of sentiments that are developed by both men and women during their routines in the city. The author bases this chapter on an analysis that took place between 1999 and 2002. This is where those residing in London and Jerusalem were engaged in an interview based on their notions of comfort, belonging and commitment. This was concerning their environment category which included streets, buildings, city centre, and city parks and the city itself. The author has based this research on qualitative content analysis methodology. This is on the participants narratives based on their perceptions on belonging, commitment and comfort. The participants narrated on their lives in the city based on the categories and based on their daily experiences; it was possible to come up with an understanding of gendered aspects related to living and belonging in the city. The author selected the London and Jerusalem because they can reflect the contrasting images as well as symbolism. Through having comparison of the men and women living in the two cities, it becomes possible to come up with a multi-layered nature of the gendered belonging. This is gender based belonging based on the urban daily practices. The dimension of belonging as used has the capability to give a clear gendered dimension based on daily ritualised use of space. From the research, some of the women interviewed claimed to have become more attached to their environment since attaining motherhood. This is because some of these women started to use their home environment more intensively than before. In this case, the daily household duties make the woman more attached to the environment. This is due to the existing gendered division of roles when compared with their partners. For the men, there was no mention of their fatherhood as an influence on their sense of belonging in their environment. Belonging and Citizenship Belonging is seen as a form of citizenship. This has been a common interpretation of this term. According to the author, the official belonging is based and formalised in the patterns of citizenship. As explained by the author, Palestinians living in Jerusalem have their human and citizen rights abused through the planning and development which is done in the interests of Jews. This is where their types of belonging and citizenship are connected. Varying definitions of citizenship according to the author has legitimised some types of exclusion or leading to a lack of belonging. In this case, the definitions of citizenship are identity-based since they determine which of the identities is to be included in a given hegemonic community and what to exclude. According to the author, using the definition of full citizenship has a negative impact on the, women, immigrants, children, minorities and in some cases the elderly. Thus, the definition of citizenship is seen as a legitimate way to create boundaries within a diverse group. Belonging and walking According to the author, we all belong based on our routine walking practices. This is where our repetitive walking practices are a means of creating a sense of belonging. We use the city space daily either through the car, walking or any form of public transportation. The author shows that the walking practices are gendered. This is because women will have their walking practices being dictated by their gender based roles such as caring for the children, walking the baby and shopping within their home area. This is especially for the young mothers whose repetitive walking practices helps in creating a sense of belonging to a given environment. Power relations, control and the gendered sense of belonging According to the author, the size of the space determines the power relations role in the one's sense of belonging. This is where the power can be used to dictate the boundaries of belonging. When looking at the public spaces, the author claims that power relation is based on discrimination, claim, exclusion, and claim. This can be well illustrated by the Palestinians living in Jerusalem or the Bangladesh who live in London who can claim to be “others.” In this case, the author claims that the power of belonging is based on the private who can exclude and the public who have the power to access. Right to belong according to this chapter is based on the right to be part of the civil society and take part irrespective of own identity. This is where one has rights to equality and maintains the identity difference. It is important to note the connection that exists between the sense of belonging and the urban planning. This is known as the association of order and belonging. Through urban planning, it becomes possible to express spatial citizenship and belonging. Koolhaas, R., 1995, ‘The Generic City’, In: Koolhaas R, Mau B (eds.), S, M, L, XL, 010 Publishers, Rotterdam, pp. 1239–1264. The article by architect Rem Koolhaas formulates different ideas in which a city can position itself better as a Generic City (without identity or specific quality). The author theory is based on his critical observations on the global cities which he had experiences and what they are characterised of. In the article, the author first despises the city identity which he believes that it chokes the city to death. The identity of the city is compared with a mouse trap where he says that the stronger the identity, the more it is capable of imprisoning and resisting the expansion, renewal, contradiction, and interpretation. The author also claims that the insistence of the centre as the core of the city value and meaning and the font of all significance is highly destructive. According to the author, the city is freed from the straightjacket of identity. Koolhaas identifies that the public space comes in different shapes and sizes. Compared with the traditional cities, the Generic City is free from established patterns and expectations. This is unlike the traditional city which is made of rules and code of behaviour. The city has no demands and hence creates freedom. Based on Koolhaas view, the city regional identity has already became obsolete due to the global assimilation of the cultural identities. The cities located in the west and east is now made up of structural layouts which are interchangeable and in arbitrary design. Despite this, the inhabitants accept them without criticizing since they value them as legacy habitats. According to the article, there is a global common ground which occurs between the urban landscapes. Despite this, there is a huge difference in regional and climatic properties. The Generic City has a political relationship with a less authoritarian rule which in some cases is distant. In this case, sometimes the leaders’ cronies came up with a decision to set up a city or develop a down town in the periphery which acted as a trigger to the boom which resulted to Generic City. This is a city that is losing every structure which was used to make things coalesce in past. The article describes the generic city as a reflection of the present need and ability. This is a city that has no history and can be considered big enough for everyone. Based on the authors view, this is a city that does not require any maintenance. When the city is small, it just requires expanding. When the generic city is old, it just renews itself. The author also looks at the Generic City statisticism where the population has grown dramatically over the past decades. According to the author, the generic city is what is left after the rest of urban crossed into cyber space. This is a sedated city which has moments spaced far into space. The city addresses the evils which were left behind by the traditional city. The city is described as fractal making it possible to reconstruct it from a small entity such as a desktop computer or a diskette. Koolhaas thinks of the airport as one of the most important infrastructures which help in gaining an understanding of the contemporary city. He describes and stresses the architectural and spatial aspects which can be offered by the airport. He also looks at the performance and autonomy which is offered by the airport. This makes him call the airport the most singular and characteristic element in the Generic City. This makes him assert that the airport will replace the city in future. When looking at the urban planning, the author seems to embrace the bridges and motorways instead of the pedestrian networks which are provided by the Generic City. The city free style is seen as immoral and pragmatic. This is a city that is growing fast which makes planning redundant. It is important to note that the author sees this as an advantage of the generic city. When analysing the architecture of the Generic City, Koolhaas emphasizes on the use of postmodern language as a method instead of using it as a historical language. According to him, this is a city which does not require a strong theoretical framework to come up with it. To sum up, Koolhaas analysis and the information is based on what the global cities operate and are shaped on. This is based on the authors view and experience. This article sees the development of the global cities to be out of control. Read More