Realising the “right to the city”

• Author: Rory Hearne
• Position: Centre for Urban and Regional Studies, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland

Introduction

Globalisation has led to a deepening “urban divide” in developing and developed world cities ( UN Habitat, 2010b ). Profound inequalities and poverty have persisted in spatially concentrated areas. Minority social groups within the urban population have been systematically prevented from, or restricted in, the fulfilment of their basic needs). Cities have become “arenas of conflict” instead of “cradles of creative endeavour” ( UN Habitat, 2009 ). Social, economic and cultural exclusion can be created through differences in the way urban space and land is produced, commodified, appropriated, transformed and used ( Brenner and Theodore, 2002 ; Harvey, 2008 ). Some urban areas, for example, feature significant infrastructure, well-kept parks, gardens and up-market residential areas. In contrast, other areas are characterised by severe deprivation, inadequate housing, deficient services, poor recreation and cultural facilities, urban decay, and scarce capital investment in public infrastructure ( Balbo, 1993 ; Davis, 1990 ; Harvey, 2008 ).

In the developed world cities of the USA and Europe, there are many areas with high rates of deprivation and social exclusion, despite general levels of economic growth and development. Certain estates and neighbourhoods, especially areas with high concentrations of social housing, have been particularly affected. These have been described as the spatial manifestation of persistent socio-economic inequalities, and the failure of states to protect and realise economic, social and cultural rights ( Atkinson and Jacobs, 2010 ; Badcock, 1997 ; Davis, 1990 ; Kenna, 2011b ; UN Habitat, 2011 ). Typical indicators of disadvantage and social inequality include high levels of social marginalisation, substandard housing, fear and crime, particularly related to the illegal drug system, poverty and low incomes, unemployment, low skills and levels of educational attainment, community stigma and poor health. These localities are disproportionately likely to experience a multiplicity of these problems and experience them simultaneously ( NESC, 2004 ; Page, 2006 ).

In response, human rights practitioners and activists, academics, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), municipal authorities, and social movements have increasingly advocated for a “right to the city” ( Brown and Kristiansen, 2008 ; Harvey, 2008 ; Mitchell, 2003 ; UN Habitat, 2009, 2010b ; Right to the City Alliance, 2010 ). They seek to apply human rights specifically to the urban domain, and extend the boundaries of the human rights agenda to emphasise political, economic, social, and environmental rights, alongside new and emerging rights associated with urban development ( Brown and Kristiansen, 2008 ; Mitchell, 2003 ; UN Habitat, 2009 ).

The concept of the “right to the city” was first articulated in the 1960s by the French sociologist and philosopher Henri Lefebvre in “Le droite à la ville” (“Right to the city”). Lefebvre (1996) created a powerful paradigm focused on citizens' participation in the use and production of urban space, and a right to full involvement in urban life. Following Lefebvre, Harvey (2008) proposed that achieving the “right to the city” be a central component in political and ethical discourses which challenge the exclusionary process of capitalist urbanisation, hegemonic neoliberal market logics, and elite modes of legality and state action. Human rights should be at the core of this. The “right to the city” should be part of a radical new urban politics that is collective rather than based solely on individual rights. Transformation inevitably depends upon the exercise of a collective power to reshape the processes of urbanisation.

UN-Habitat, has led the movement to progress the “right to the city”, suggesting that it encompasses a broad range of human rights:

When we speak of the right to the city, we are talking about ensuring that women, men, youth and children have equal access to basic services in the communities where they live […] The right to the city also implies minimum levels of safety and security so that people do not live in constant fear of being assaulted or of being robbed. The right to the city also includes affordable energy and public transport to facilitate access to jobs, education and recreation. The right to the city includes the right to adequate housing and the right for people to participate in decisions affecting their livelihoods ( UN Habitat 2010b, p. 3 ).

The “right to the city” has been used as a catalyst for change and progressed by social movements in developing world cities, notably Latin America, where it has been enshrined in national constitutions in Brazil, Ecuador, and Bolivia. The 2001, the City Statute in Brazil explicitly recognised the “right to the city” as a collective right ( UN Habitat, 2009 ). UN Habitat's fifth World Urban Forum in 2010 focused on identifying the key challenges facing its practical realisation. This included the necessity of “greater effort […] towards putting in place appropriate legal and institutional frameworks as well as the necessary investments to make the right to the city a reality” and “for international monitoring and advocacy with national and local authorities as duty bearers targeting governance and the provision of basic services” ( UN Habitat, 2010a, p. 14 ). Further, the “right to the city” can only become effective when citizens become involved as “active agents of change”, influencing decisions about city development. Therefore, it is important to help build the capacity of urban dwellers to give increasing effect to their “rights to the city” ( UN Habitat, 2010a ).

Collective action and bottom-up processes of development have also been highlighted by civil society social movements. For these, the “right to the city” has come to be seen as a rallying cry for collective movements to challenge urban exclusion, with examples of grassroots women's academies and a citizens' forum in India. These challenge the pervasive privatisation of urban space and the displacement of low income and marginalised communities from their historic urban neighbourhoods ( Mitchell, 2003 ; UN Habitat, 2010a ; Right to the City Alliance, 2010 ).

Rights based approaches – especially those based on public international law, have faced significant challenges in implementation and monitoring. It is acknowledged that this is particularly relevant for economic, social and cultural rights. There is a paucity of human rights based frameworks and mechanisms to assess and monitor various State sectors and programmes at national and local levels, particularly in the developed world context ( Baderin and McCorquodale, 2007 ; Brown and Kristiansen, 2008 ; Donnelly and Howard, 1988 ; Felner, 2009 ; Kenna, 2011a ; Kirkemann Boesen and Martin, 2007 ). Achieving the “right to the city” faces similar challenges ( Harvey, 2008 ; UN Habitat, 2009, 2010a ). Thus, investigation and analyses of how the “right to the city” can be realised on a practical, local level is valuable. This article aims to address, in a small way, this lacuna in the “right to the city” and human rights literature, by developing a human rights based approach (HRBA) for assessing the regeneration of disadvantaged areas in developed world cities.

Regeneration, encompassing a combination of physical rebuilding and refurbishment of housing and social and economic inclusion programmes, is one contemporary State response to social exclusion and substandard housing ( Atkinson and Jacobs, 2010 ; Department of Communities and Local Government, 2010 ; Page, 2006 ). However, achieving successful regeneration has the potential to realise many key components of the “right to the city”. The following section presents an overview of trends in regeneration programmes in areas of disadvantage or underserved communities. It then outlines recent experience of regeneration in the Republic of Ireland, which led to one underserved community adopting a HRBA to substandard housing conditions and delayed regeneration plans. Regeneration best practice is briefly reviewed. Relevant international human rights instruments are identified for a toolkit of indicators, which can apply a HRBA to regeneration. The article concludes with a critical reflection on their potential usefulness in realising the “right to the city”.

Regeneration as a response to spatial patterns of concentrated deprivation

Spatial concentrations of urban deprivation have resulted from the macro level restructuring of economies. Some arose from the decline of traditional manufacturing industry, technological change and the decline in the role and funding of public services of the welfare state, often as part of a general trend towards neoliberal policies since the 1980s ( Brenner and Theodore, 2002 ; Clapham, 2006 ; Jessop, 2002 ; Oxley, 2000 ; Van Gent, 2010 ). State policies have promoted the sale and transfer (privatisation) of social rented housing stock, prioritised home ownership, and reduced investment in the provision and maintenance of social housing ( Drudy and Punch, 2005 ; Whitehead and Scanlon, 2007 ). This has often resulted in a residualisation of the public housing stock, housing only the most economically and socially vulnerable.

For instance, in Ireland, social housing rented units declined from 15 percent of total occupancy in 1971 to 7 percent in 2002 ( Drudy and Punch, 2005 ). Some of...