The city and the urban as spaces of capital and social struggle: notes on Henri Lefebvre’s enduring contributions

Abstract

The argument of this essay is that Lefebvre’s writings contain relevant contributions to understand the contemporary phenomenon of neoliberal urbanism and, at the same time, his politics of the possible can contribute to explain the restless urban struggles and spatial practices of social movements. We value the author’s contribution from a comprehensive perspective, avoiding the usual fragmented way it has been used in the fields of public administration, organization and urban studies. Our reading follows Gadamer’s notion of “the horizon of the question”, which indicates that “we can understand a text only when we have understood the question to which it is an answer”. Accordingly, the question posed asks for the contribution of Lefebvre’s oeuvre to understand contemporary urban processes and to make visible possible futures objectively implied in processes of social struggles.