Rebel Cities Review

A review of

David Harvey’s REBEL CITIES: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution

by Eleni Katrini

Carnegie Mellon University, Fall 2013

0 the author; David Harvey

http://vimeo.com/davidharvey/videos

1 urbanization & capital apsorption 2 the urban growth machine 3 monopoly rent + identity 4 gentrification + the tragedy of urban commons 5 structures of civic organization

1 urbanization & capital apsorption “The politics of capitalism are affected by the perpetual need to find profitable terrains for capital surplus production and absorption.

In this the capitalist faces a number of obstacles to continuous and trouble-free expansion.�

1 urbanization & capital apsorption The politics of capitalism are affected by the perpetual need to find profitable terrains for capital surplus production and absorption.

In this the capitalist faces a number of obstacles to continuous and trouble-free expansion.

AFFECTED PRODUCTION

problem

scarcity of labor

solution

problem

solution

fresh labor found

not enough purchasing labor in existing market increase of wages

AFFECTED PURCHASING POWER

wages adjusted

creation of new lifestyles & values

*

1 urbanization & capital apsorption

capital surplus absorption

1 urbanization & capital apsorption

Baron Haussmann

source: http://www.parisapied.net/A%20abecedaire.htm http://spargelandfraise.wordpress.com/2011/05/ www.wikipedia.com

1 urbanization & capital apsorption

Robert Moses

A model of the 1964 World’s Fair, one of Robert Moses’s final projects. sources: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/06/nyregion/thecity/06hist.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 http://www.newrepublic.com/article/113735/urban-planning-dictatorial-planners-image-rehabilitated

2000 crisis

1987 crisis

1973 crisis

1929 crisis

1 urbanization & capital apsorption

Property booms that preceded the crashes of 1929, 1973, 1987, and 2000 stand out like a pikestaff. The buildings we see around us in New York City, they poignantly note, represent “more than architectural movement; they were largely the manifestation of a widespread phenomenon�.

(Goetzmann and Newman)

2 the urban growth machine

33.8%

top

1% (wealthiest U.S. citizens)

top

85%

20% (wealthiest U.S. citizens)

bottom

0.20%

US total wealth

40%

(poorest U.S. citizens)

3 monopoly rent + identity

$ Price of land

+ Human activity & urban commons

4 gentrification + the tragedy of urban commons

new development

$ Price of land

the tragedy of the Urban Commons

5 structures of civic organization

So how can this urban regeneration and transformation happen by the citizens for themselves and not for serving the market? What are the social structures that need to be formed to promote the citizens’ and communities’ welfare instead of the financial benefits of a few?

5 structures of civic organization

horizontal structures - limitations in scale

5 structures of civic organization

Elinor Ostrom

+

collective ways of organization nested structures in larger scalers governing the commons

Source: http://im-an-economist.blogspot.com/2012/03/evening-with-elinor-ostrom.html Source: http://ecosocialismcanada.blogspot.com/2012/08/murray-bookchin-man-who-brought-radical.html

Murray Bookchin confederalism social ecology

5 structures of civic organization

nested horizontal structures

“The central question in this study is how a group of principals who are in an interdependent situation can organize and govern themselves to obtain continuing joint benefits when all face temptations to free-ride, shirk, or otherwise act opportunistically.� Ostrom (1990)

hyerarchical structure

5 structures of civic organization

A union of states in which each member state retains some independent control over internal and external affairs. Thus, for international purposes, there are separate states, not just one state. A federation, in contrast, is a union of states in which external affairs are controlled by a unified, central government.

Source: http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Confederalism

confederalism

-- conclusion

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality.

To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.�

Buckminister Fuller