Last 2-3 April, it was hold in Barcelona the European Regional meeting of the Global Platform for the Right to the City (GPR2C). The plurality of aspects of the Right to the City was at the centre of the debates –mainly on the areas of housing, public spaces, solidary economy, financialization of cities and concrete experiences of the Right to the City. The Platform hereby presents some articles and videos produced on the occasion of this meeting.
- Public Spaces and the Right to the City: Barcelona paves the way towards Habitat III, by Judith Hitchman (URGENCI)
“It is impossible to make the unsustainable management of cities more sustainable by merely tweaking the details without changing the fundamental aspects of land and property governance and rights to housing, food, health, education and social, economic and cultural justice.”
It is not a coincidence that Habitat III debate is organized around the contradiction between competitive city and solidarity city. Habitat III preparations are not independent of the international situation and the global debate. It confirms Henri Lefebvre’s thesis: public space is the social relationships’ projection on the ground.
- If Habitat III wants to uphold the right to housing, it needs to address financialization, by Rafaella Dima (Bartlett Development Planning Unit)
For a conference aiming to come up with a New Urban Agenda, and that has previously agreed on such rights such as the right to adequate housing, the issue of financialization, which has put housing that much more out of reach for millions of people, needs to be addressed at Habitat III.
- Videos. “What does the Right to the City mean for you? Do you know any related experience?”
Representatives from social organizations answered these questions during the GPR2C European Meeting: