Henri Lefebvre and planetary urbanization: Progress and prospect
Vol 5, Issue 2, 2024
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Abstract
Henri Lefebvre, a key Marxist urban theorist, introduced the concept of ‘Planetary Urbanization,’ a cutting-edge theory addressing emerging global forms of capitalist urbanization, where traditional urban theories have limited explanatory power. This paper reviews studies on planetary urbanization over the past 20 years in relation to Lefebvre’s urban theories. The report categorizes planetary urbanization’s contributions to urban theory into two primary aspects. First, it innovatively incorporates the processes of urbanization and the extended operational landscapes within urban research. Second, it proposes new trajectories for urban politics by reshaping Lefebvre’s concept of ‘the right to the city.’ However, by tracing Lefebvre’s theories, the report argues that planetary urbanization overlooks his emphasis on ‘everyday life’ while aligning with his views on generality and universality. Consequently, this dehumanized approach fails to uncover the significant political potential embedded in urban daily life. Additionally, by neglecting the differences among urban populations, the theory adopts a naive perspective on the subaltern’s capacity to articulate their ‘right to the city.’ Moreover, as a Eurocentric theory rooted in Western urbanization history, it inadequately explains context-specific events occurring in the urbanization of the Global South. Thus, this paper suggests that future research on planetary urbanization should incorporate considerations of urban everyday life, recognize social differences, and account for context-specific dependencies.
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Prof. Jianming Cai
Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
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