Urban Claims and the Right to the City

Urban Claims and the Right to the City explores how contested processes of urban development, and the rights of city dwellers, are understood and interpreted from the perspective of women and men working, in different ways, at the grassroots in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, and London, UK. In doing so, it represents the grounded voices of authors whose work and lives mean that they engage, on a daily basis, with issues related to housing and spatial rights, and identity struggles around race, gender, disability, sexuality, citizenship and class.

Reivindicações Urbanas e o Direito à Cidade investiga como os processos de desenvolvimento urbano em disputa e os direitos de moradores das cidades são compreendidos e interpretados por mulheres e homens que trabalham, de maneiras diferentes, nas bases populares de Salvador da Bahia, no Brasil, e de Londres, no Reino Unido. Ao fazê-lo, o livro representa vozes situadas de autores cujos trabalhos e vidas estão cotidianamente engajados em questões relacionadas aos direitos à moradia e ao espaço, e em lutas pautadas por identidades de raça, gênero, deficiência, sexualidade, cidadania e classe social.

Praise for Urban Claims and the Right to the City

'Offers the reader ... similar to what the philosopher Giorgio Agambem has argued for, the need to comprehend the making of subjectivities, powers and capacities for political action within the conditions of the contemporary city. It does this with a light-touch of the editors, allowing for these commentaries to stand independently.'The London Journal

'This bilingual book is several things at once. It’s a photography collection, with over 100 vibrant photos documenting the case study cities of Salvador da Bahia (Brazil) and London (UK). It’s an interview series, with a few chapters by academics but mostly told through the voices of activists. And it’s a research report, which centres but also questions the core concept of the right to the city. … Urban Claims and the Right to the City is a different kind of academic work, aiming for a different kind of city.’
Environment & Urbanization