David Harvey’s REBEL CITIES: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution by Eleni KatriniCarnegie Mellon University, Fall 2013

A review of

http://vimeo.com/davidharvey/videos

0 the author; David Harvey

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.

scarcity of labor

increase of wages

AFFECTED PRODUCTION

problem solution

fresh labor found

wages adjusted

not enough purchasing labor in existing market

AFFECTED PURCHASING

POWERproblem solution

creation of new lifestyles & values*

1 urbanization & capital apsorption

capital surplus absorption

1 urbanization & capital apsorption

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

Baron Haussmann

1 urbanization & capital apsorption

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

Robert Moses

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)

1929

cris

is

1973

cris

is

1987

cris

is

2000

cris

is

top

top

2 the urban growth machine

1%

20%

40%bottom

(wealthiest U.S. citizens)

(poorest U.S. citizens)

(wealthiest U.S. citizens)

33.8

%85

%

0.20%

US total wealth

3 monopoly rent + identity

+ $ Price of land Human activity & urban commons

$ Price of land

the tragedy of the Urban Commons

new development

4 gentrification + the tragedy of 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

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

collective ways of organizationnested structures in larger scalers

governing the commons

Elinor Ostrom Murray Bookchin +confederalismsocial ecology

5 structures of civic organization

nested horizontal structures

5 structures of civic organization

confederalism

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

“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)

hye

rarc

hica

l stru

ctur

e

-- 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