81 | David Harvey: Capitalist Urbanization and the Right to the City
Added 2024-01-22 11:00:11 +0000 UTCIn this episode, we talk about David Harvey’s analysis of the urbanization process as a form of accumulated surplus capital expenditure and consider the built environment as a crucial site of class struggle. The physical constitution of the built environment in which we live mediates our forms of sociality and political dispositions, not to mention how important it is for making mass action and organization possible. So it sure sucks that the shape of its development has been determined by the needs of capital rather than those of human flourishing for a few hundred years now! Oh, and we’re really mean to the suburbs, too.
leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil
References:
David Harvey, “The urban process under capitalism: a framework for analysis.” In Urbanization and Urban Planning in Capitalist Society, eds. Michael Dear and Allen Scott (London: Routledge, 1981).
David Harvey, “The Right to the City.” New Left Review 53 (Sept/Oct 2008). https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii53/articles/david-harvey-the-right-to-the-city
Music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN
Comments
I really really enjoyed this episode and this topic. And yes, you guys should definitely do an episode on Beaudrillard (and Lefebvre.) I've been hoping for that since i started listening way back. I feel like he's been missing from our global discourse. Spaces and power. Thanks for all you guys do!
Sosation
2024-01-30 13:08:17 +0000 UTCAs someone listening to this episode on my commute to City Hall, I feel called out 😂 definitely why I love working in the industry though, is the impact on community and society. Lots of work to do.
Robyn Claire
2024-01-28 00:11:42 +0000 UTCSo sad that China built 1:1 replica cities when they could’ve made little Ohio instead. Little Grandpa’s Cheese Barn, Little Lost Lands, Little Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Ohio Hegelians re-enactments, history of industry museum-parks, and of course the Burning of the little Cuyahoga River Festival.
Kent Taylor
2024-01-24 17:14:14 +0000 UTCYou guys may not be my friends, but in the tangle of group threads and text messages that constitute my virtual third space, your discourse provides an important part of the virtual ground upon which my relationships with my real friends and family commune. Thanks for being part of the infrastructure that supports some of my favorite modes of sociality.
Jonathan jurow
2024-01-24 13:49:13 +0000 UTCYou should watch ‘isle of dogs’ by Wes Anderson if you want more tips on how to dismantle dog supremacy (and maybe also tips on how to not do it)
Lotte Tendijck
2024-01-23 05:21:53 +0000 UTCIf you think European trains look impressive, you should come to China. The big cities here not only have subways, but a lot of them also have high speed rail
Michael Xin
2024-01-23 03:01:07 +0000 UTCin fact that was a factual error on our part -- the railway that was recently shut down was a different one! we've taken that line out of the episode. sorry for the confusion!
Gil Morejon
2024-01-22 23:01:47 +0000 UTCI think there is so much to be mined from the alienation of suburban infrastructure, someone exclaimed that the suburbs are where radicalization takes place and I couldn’t agree more. I live in Portland OR and the dividing line between the urban center and the suburbs is as stark as any example that could be given. My job as a contractor will bring me into the suburbs often and sometimes I am struck by how staged it is, the commercial centers and public spaces have the feel and look of a less grand theme park, even the sidewalks seem more like set dressing as I hardly see them used. I can’t help but think that everyone out there is LARPing their way through existence. It’s out here where you’ll see most of the lifted trucks and “we the people” type stickers and people obsessed with crime and immigration as they live in the safest regions of our state.
Sam Schick
2024-01-22 21:38:50 +0000 UTCI took the pink line one time in 5 years - and didn’t have any idea it had been shut down because literally no one uses it enough to complain about its absence.
pelicans123
2024-01-22 18:54:26 +0000 UTCYou left out the biggest indictment of the 'burbs; where all these school shooters and mass shootings are
John W
2024-01-22 17:39:28 +0000 UTC
