Lesutis, Gediminas. “Planetary Urbanization and the ‘Right Against the Urbicidal City.”’ Urban Geography 42, no. 8 (2021): 1195-121.

Eleni Spiliotes
Tuesday 3 January 2023

This article reconceptualizes planetary urbanization, defined as unsustainable growth of the capitalist city, which violates the spatial justice of other types of settlement, as urbicide. Lesutis argues that the popular phrase in urban studies, “right to the city,” should be modified to “right against the urbicidal city,” since for communities living in the path of planetary urbanization, inclusion in the city means the urbicide, i.e., destruction, of their previous socio-spatial identities. Using the case study of Tete, Mozambique, Lesutis shows how planetary urbanization creates an “operational landscape of the urban,” a landscape of displaced populations, whose lack of subsistence is essential to the continuation of the capitalist city. By evoking a vision of peace that is increasingly urban, but no longer city-centric, this article prompts discourse on how urban forms can be reimagined to account for the spatial justice of all populations.

Link: https://doi-org.ezproxy.st-andrews.ac.uk/10.1080/02723638.2020.1765632

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