Elodie Vittu

"Right to the city": From a theoretical concept from France to urban social movements worldwide

Depending on the actor and strategy, the term "right to the city" takes on a different meaning and definitions seem to diverge. However, more and more activists and coalitions refer to this right, but understand it in very different ways, depending on the problem and the region of the world. It is not only the gentrified city that is criticized; the campaigners for the "right to the city" also fight against evictions, homelessness or demand participation in public space, more participation, a more social urban development policy, etc. How is Henri Lefebvre's "right to the city" understood, used and defined in practice today?

The aim of my work in the discipline of "urban studies/urban planning" at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar is to delineate "right to the city" movements and to create contours by examining a variety of urban social movements. Numerous such movements have been recorded and sorted in Europe and Latin America in order to identify a self-understanding of the "right to the city" movements in terms of their location, field of action, stability and form of protest. They are urban political groups that come together to pursue a common interest in urban issues and demand social change with a certain continuity. Four case studies in Hungary (AVM), Argentina (Giros), and Germany (Right to the City in Hamburg and Jena) are examined in more detail. These contemporary movements all relate to urban development and have a basic notion of the right to the city described by the French philosopher Henri Lefebvre in Droit à la Ville (1968) and The Revolution of Cities (1972) in the 1970s.

The success story of the term can be noted to the extent that both practitioners and politicians use it. However, institutionalization and charters are only a side effect of the cohesive force. My doctoral thesis focuses more on the productive connection between practice and science. Is the term "right to the city" more than just a good slogan? All participants (researchers, practitioners and politically engaged citizens) should become aware of the many facets and commonalities of the "right to the city" movements. The work is primarily aimed at social movements, but also at specialists and experts who want to or are able to act. It is intended to make a contribution to critical science and movement research.