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Cities for All
Proposals and Experiences
towards the Right to the City
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Cities for All
Proposals and Experiences
towards the Right to the City
Edited by
Ana Sugranyes
Charlotte Mathivet
Habitat International Coalition, HIC
Habitat International Coalition acknowledges the different authors for their collaboration
with this publication.
We also acknowledge the funding support of MISEREOR.
Cities for All: Proposals and Experiences towards the Right to the City
Edited by Ana Sugranyes and Charlotte Mathivet-Habitat International Coalition (HIC)
First edition - Santiago, Chile, 2010
ISBN: 978-956-208-090-3
Text edition by Charlotte Mathivet and Shelley Buckingham
Translations by Shamrock Idiomas Ltda.
Design by Andoni Martija
Cover photograph by Charlotte Mathivet
Photographs in the text from Habitat International Coalition archives
Edition Management by Luis Solis
Corrections by Eva Salinas
Habitat International Coalition (HIC) www.hic-net.org
Email:
HIC General Secretariat

Prologue
Davinder Lamba 11
Introduction
Cities for All: Articulating the Social-Urban Capacities
Ana Sugranyes and Charlotte Mathivet 13

The Right to the City: Keys to Understanding the Proposal for
“Another City is Possible”
Charlotte Mathivet 21
Part One
PrOPOsals fOr the right tO the City 27
Democracy in Search of the Future City
Jordi Borja 29
Countering the Right to the Accessible City: The Perversity
of a Consensual Demand
Yves Jouffe 43
Examining the Right to the City from a Gender Perspective
Shelley Buckingham 57
The Right to the City and Gendered Everyday Life
Tovi Fenster 63
A Horizon for Public Policies? Notes on Happiness
Patricia Ezquerra, Henry Renna 77
Rights in Cities and the Right to the City?
Peter Marcuse 87
A New Alliance for the City? Opportunities and Challenges
of a (Globalizing) Right to the City Movement
Giuseppe Caruso 99
The Construction Process towards the Right to the City in Latin America
Enrique Ortiz 113
The Concept and Implementation of the Right to the City

People’s initiatives of empowerment 193
Building Cities for and by the People: The Right to the City in Africa
Joseph Fumtim 195
El Movimiento de Pobladores en Lucha, Santiago, Chile
Charlotte Mathivet, Claudio Pulgar 201
Involving Children in Urban Planning
Felipe Morales, Alejandra Elgueta 213
The OUR Waterfront Campaign, Defending the Right
to the City in New York
Shelley Buckingham 219
Urban Land Committees, Venezuela
Héctor Madera 223
Organizing, Power, and Political Support in Caracas, Venezuela
Steffen Lajoie 227
We are Making a City, Bolivia
Rose Mary Irusta Pérez 233
Community Organizing, Building Power, and Winning a
Right to the City in Toronto’s Low Income Neighborhoods
Steffen Lajoie 239
Legal framework of the right to the city 245
The History of Urban Reform in Brazil
Nelson Saule Júnior, Karina Uzzo 247
Mexico City Charter: The Right to Build the City We Dream About
Lorena Zárate 259
Policy and Legal Perspectives on Actualizing the Right
to the City in Nigeria
Mobola Fajemirokun 267
The Path of the Right to the City in Bolivia
Uvaldo Mamani 271
The Social Contract for Housing, Ecuador

HIC commitments to advance the understanding and the resolution of the
complex right to the city over the last decades, among other things, have involved
creating theoretical and practical knowledge in collaboration with others and
sharing it through publications. The first edition of the book, in three languages,
is a very substantive, intellectual effort towards this end. Our hope is that the
book will inspire many to advance the struggle for the emergence of the right of
all to live in peace and dignity in the cities of the world.
I sincerely thank all the contributors to the book from around the world, on
behalf of HIC.
Davinder Lamba
HIC President
1 In this book, ‘civil society’ and ‘state’ are written in minuscule letters, so as to respect the link
between these two actors of equal importance.

Introduction
Cities for All: Articulating the Social-Urban
Capacities
1
Ana Sugranyes and Charlotte Mathivet
In the Urban Reform tent during the World Social Forum held in Belém, Brazil,
in January 2009, geographer David Harvey stated, “I am very grateful for this
invitation because I always learn a great deal from social movements.
2
He ended
his lecture by stating that “it s come to the point when it s no longer a matter of
accepting what Margaret Thatcher said, that 13 There is no alternative, and we
say that there has to be an alternative. There has to be an alternative to capitalism
in general. And we can begin to approach that alternative by perceiving the right
to the city as a popular and international demand and I hope that we can all join
together in that mission.

5
This reformulation of urban life offers more equity, where the majority of
inhabitants achieve happiness and solidarity, generating and redistributing
the benefits of the city for all. We are aware of the challenges of this particular
aspiration for social justice. Some call it wishful thinking or an illusion. We call it
indispensable utopia in order for another world to be possible.
In this major task of (re)inventing the terms of “good living”
6
as many
indigenous Andean, Quechua, and Aymara peoples have called it it is essential
to build comprehensive global strategies to create another kind of city and
other kinds of human relationships. As Harvey said, social movements play an
important role in this through their daily struggles for a more egalitarian society,
and specifically for a more just city.
Let us be reminded of the historical context in which the right to the city
emerges as a concept, idea, and program (and not just a slogan) as defined by
French philosopher and sociologist Henri Lefebvre in 1968 in his book “Le droit à
la ville.”
7
At the time, Lefebvre was a professor of urban sociology at the Faculty of
Sociology at Nanterre University, where the May’68 movement began. For many,
Lefebvre’s ideas about the right to the city influenced the events of May 68. It
is true that in the collective imagination, Lefebvre is not automatically linked
with the French social movement. Instead the movement is linked with famous
names such as Levi-Strauss, Lacan and Debord. These intellectuals (and others)
have appropriated the movement of May’68 even though it was driven by the
ideas of Lefebvre and his assistants. In this regard, “May 1968 is not the work of
academics of the major schools, but of the people. Lefebvre did not attend l’École
4 Purcell, Mark, Le droit à la ville et les mouvements urbains contemporains, Droit de Cité, Rue
Descartes, N.63, p42. 2009. Original citation in French : “Le droit à la ville de Lefebvre implique

subversion and rebellion against the established order. However today it is the
social movements under the banner of the right to the city who are empowered
in their struggles against the harmful effects of the neoliberal system previously
mentioned.
Forty-two years after the first formulation of the right to the city, it is surprising
that this idea continues to hold up and convoke social and academic movements
and civil society organisations, all so heterogeneous, and all from different parts
of the world. Perhaps it is not so surprising, since popular strategies to fight
against the commercial logic of globalization act locally with a global perspective
of the right to the city.
Habitat International Coalition (HIC) is part of this story and this proposal. This is
why the decision was made to publish a compilation of articles relating experiences
and analyses that consider the right to the city as their rallying flag and as their
political proposal for change. This goal is very evident in some cases whereas in
others the right to the city is not directly mentioned. Many of the texts interpret the
right to the city in very different ways: as a political, legal or cultural tool.
This book seeks to articulate struggles, describing them according to each local
context, with a global perspective to build links, networks, and alliances. It is not a
theoretical study disconnected from reality, but instead it is part of a process of action
and reflection in which the movements are committed to their daily struggles.
8 Ibid. p VI Original citation in French : “Mai 1968’n est pas le fait des gens d’école mais des gens
du tas. Lefebvre n est ni normalien ni agrégé. Il a fait ses classes de sociologie en conduisant un
taxi dans les années 20 à Paris.”
9 Loc.cit, Original citation in French: “Nanterre était une faculté construite autour des bidonvilles.”
10 Loc.cit, Original citation in French: “C’ est du côté des apprentissages militants que Lefebvre a eu
une importance.”
11 As well as situationists, among others. For more on this debate between situationists and
Lefebvre, see Simay , Philippe, 2009, Une autre ville pour une autre vie. Henri Lefebvre et les
situationnistes, Droit de Cité, Rue Descartes, N.63.
16 Cities for All

why we are in need of thought and ideas rooted in these different societies, to not
only be committed to them but to be a part of them.
14
Unlike Lefebvre and several other authors with particular emphasis on
Harvey this book is not a scientific study on the right to the city. This book is
intended as a forum for debate, the exchange of ideas, illustration of experiences,
formulation of questions, but most of all, to prove the strength of the right to the
city as a tool for a city and thus a better world.
The structure of the book demonstrates this same desire. It consists of two
12 Borja, Jordi, Los desafíos del territorio y los derechos de la ciudadanía. 2001. http://www.
lafactoriaweb.com/articulos/borja10.htm#.
13 Zibechi Raúl, 2007, Dispersar el poder, Los movimientos como poderes antiestatales, Editorial
Quimantú, Santiago de Chile, p 8.
14 Loc.cit.
Introduction 17
main parts: the first includes articles from a theoretical consideration of prominent
authors. Jordi Borja
15
introduces the city’s problems from the perspective of
democracy. Yves Jouffe
16
presents a critical analysis of the right to the city by
focusing on the access to urban space. This criticism can be further examined
through the gender-based analysis of Tovi Fenster
17
, supported by the definitions
that Shelley Buckingham
18
introduces to this approach. From another perspective,
Patricia Ezquerra and Henry Renna

have incorporated the right to the city in their constitutional and regulatory
frameworks. This is illustrated by the analysis from Brazil, Ecuador, Bolivia, and
Mexico, which have been Latin America s pioneers in this great challenge.
15 Borja, Jordi, Democracy in Search of the Future City, p 29
16 Jouffe, Yves, Countering the Right to the Accessible City: The Perversity of a Consensual Demand, p 43
17 Fenster, Tovi, The Right to the City and Gendered Everyday Life, p 63
18 Buckingham, Shelley, The Right to the City from a Gender Perspective, p 57
19 Ezquerra, Patricia and Renna, Henry, A Horizon for Public Policies? Notes on Happiness, p 77
20 Marcuse, Peter, Rights in Cities and the Right to the City?, p 87
21 Caruso, Giuseppe, A New Alliance for the City? Opportunities and Challenges of a (Globalizing)
Right to the City Movement, p 99
22 Ortiz, Enrique, The Construction Process towards the Right to the City: Progress made and
challenges pending, p 113
23 Fajemirokun, Mobola, The Concept and Implementation of the Right to the City in Anglophone
Africa, p 121
18 Cities for All
The section on public policy and planning demonstrates how these tools
can be counteractive to the right of the city and good living, accelerating and
deepening the negative effects of globalized trade. In turn, they can also be
tools that generate processes of change that reverse situations of inequality and
injustice.
These articles are the fruits of the work of several authors and academics,
but mostly militants and activists of the right to the city. Many of them belong
to grassroots social movements. This diversity of actors and hence the type of
articles is a reflection of what Zibechi expressed: there should be a willingness
to publicize the ideas and practices of social movements, as long as we maintain
respect for these movements without incorrectly speaking on their behalf. The
other challenge is to accompany these movements by providing skills and
knowledge. Aware of these challenges, the book expresses the different paths
towards the realization of the right to the city and the construction of another city.

towards women that exists in public spaces.
As discussed by Giuseppe Caruso, it is also important to highlight the role
that the World Social Forum (WSF) has provided for social movements and their
coordination as a global expression of the right to the city in the world. Indeed,
the WSF for the past ten years has facilitated the construction of comprehensive
strategies for different movements to meet, share, learn and re-analyze their
own experience in light of what is discerned in other movements. This has led
movements and networks to formulate charters, statements and agendas to
continue the struggle for the right to the city. In other publications
25
, HIC has
analyzed the processes of the different charters for the right to the city, and in
particular the World Charter, as is explained in this book by Enrique Ortiz.
Cities for All recounts experiences developed by many actors from various
regions of the world. It counts on the participation of different authors from
diverse backgrounds: professionals, academics, urban planners, architects,
lawyers, sociologists, political scientists and grassroots activists, all driven
by a resistance force and a will for a proposal that is guided towards the
right to the city.
For this reason, we highlight that this diversity is the essence of the right to
the city and a possible global alliance, but also shows its weaknesses and possible
perverse effects. This book provides critical perspectives of the right to the city.
They are intended as constructive criticism to continue creating alternative
practices and policies to the hegemony of neoliberalism throughout the world.
We need to continue building the right to the city in debates as well as actions
aiming towards a process of emancipation.
The progress towards the right to the city faces a decisive moment now. The
UN, which is not known for its support of social struggles, internalized the right
to the city in the World Urban Forum 5 (WUF) in Rio de Janeiro
26

been developed with the issue and leaving clues to articulate the different forms
of struggle towards another possible city.
To facilitate reading of the proposals and experiences presented in this
publication, we present a definition and explanation of the right to the city so
that all readers can have the basic tools to understand and take control of this
proposal, path, and project of the right to the city.
References
Borja, Jordi. “Los desafíos del territorio y los derechos de la ciudadanía”. 2001. http://
www.lafactoriaweb.com/articulos/borja10.htm.
Harvey, David. “David Harvey at the World Social Forum, Belem”. 2009. www.hic-net.
org/articles.php?pid=3107.
Lefebvre, Henri “Le droit à la ville”. 1968. Ed. Economica, Third Edition. Paris, 2009.
Nehls Martínez, Nehls; Ortiz, E.; L. Zárate (comps.) “El derecho a la ciudad en el mundo”.
Compilación de documentos relevantes para el debate HIC-AL, Mexico City, 2008.
Purcell, Mark. “Le Droit à la ville et les mouvements urbains contemporains”. Droit de
Cité, Rue Descartes, No. 63. 2009.
Tortosa, José María. “Sumak Kawsay, Suma Qamaña, Buen Vivir.” 2009. www.kaosenlared.
net/noticia/sumak-kawsay-suma-qamana-buen-vivir.
Zibechi, Raúl. “Dispersar el poder, Los movimientos como poderes antiestatales”. Editorial
Quimantú. Santiago de Chile, 2007.
The Right to the City: Keys to Understanding the
Proposal for “Another City is Possible”
Charlotte Mathivet
History of the Right to the City: A proposal that goes beyond a new concept
The right to the city is not a new proposal. The term was first articulated in 1968
by French philosopher Henri Lefebvre in his book “Le droit à la ville”. The book
describes the negative impact that the capitalist economy has on cities, converting
the city into a commodity serving only the interests of capital accumulation. To
counter this phenomenon, Lefebvre proposes that inhabitants demand control
over the construction of urban spaces. Facing the effects caused by neoliberalism

of process and conquest, in which social movements are the engine driving the
achievement of this right.
The World Charter on the Right to the City
A crucial step in building the right to the city was the development of the World
Charter on the Right to the City, as coordinated by the Habitat International
Coalition (HIC) among other bodies. The formulation of the Charter included the
participation of an array of popular movements, NGOs, professional associations,
national and international civil society forums and networks, all committed to
social struggles for just, democratic, humane and sustainable cities. The Charter
seeks to collect the commitments and measures that should be undertaken by
civil society, local and national governments, parliamentarians and international
organisations to ensure that all people live with dignity in cities.
The process that sparked this initiative began during the preparatory
activities leading to the United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development, known as the “Earth Summit,” held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
in 1992. The National Forum for Urban Reform (FNRU), and the Continental
Front of Communal Organisations (FCOC) joined forces to draft and sign the
treaty on urbanization entitled “For Just, Democratic and Sustainable Cities,
Towns and Villages.”
As part of the preparatory process toward the Earth Summit, that same year HIC
organised the International Forum on Environment, Poverty, and the Right to the
City, held in Tunis. That event marked the first time the theme was debated among
HIC members from diverse regions of the world. A few years later, in October
1995, several HIC members participated in UNESCO’s expert meeting “Towards
the city of solidarity and citizenship.” That occasion inaugurated UNESCO’s
participation in the theme of urban rights. That same year, Brazilian organisations
promoted the Charter of Human Rights in the City, civilian precursor of the City
Statute promulgated several years later by the Brazilian government.
Introduction 23
Another important milestone leading towards the formulation of a World

collective right of urban dwellers, especially of vulnerable and disadvantaged
groups, that legitimizes their action and organisation based on their habits
and customs, with the aim of achieving the full realization of the right to self-
determination and an adequate standard of living.