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AbstractIn Le Droit à la Ville (1968), Lefebvre projects the urban trajectory of his day into the sci‐fi imaginary of Isaac Asimov's remarkable Foundation series, recognizing the germ of 'Trantor' in our midst, the planet of 40 billion inhabitants where urbanization has reached its absolute maximum; all 75 million square miles of Trantor's land surface are a single city. In La Révolution Urbaine (1970), Lefebvre had already begun hinting at a new reality, not only an urban society, but of planetary urbanization. Today, four decades on, Asimov's extraterrestrial universe seems closer to home than ever, and closer to Lefebvre's own terrestrial prognostications: planetary urbanization is creating a whole new spatial world (dis)order. But how shall we reclaim the shapeless, formless and boundless metropolis as a theoretical object and political object of the progressive struggle? If the arena of politics has no discernible form, what would be the form of these politics? What, exactly, are urban politics? This article tries to rethink theoretically the urban question and the question of urban politics in our era of planetary urbanization, working through the political role of the urban in the light of recent 'Occupy' mobilizations.

Resumen Uno de los últimos artículos de Henri Lefebvre, "Quand la ville se perd dans une métamorphose planétaire", publicado en Le Monde Diplomatique en 1989 es, con mucho, uno de los más enigmáticos. El título es elocuente por sí mismo, mostrando a un Lefebvre atípicamente deprimido, dos años antes de su muerte, extinguiéndose como su querida ciudad tradicional: cuando la ciudad pierde el rumbo, dice, cuando se descarría, en una metamorfosis planetaria. El presente artículo pretende desarrollar el lamento de despedida de Lefebvre problematizando sus propias tesis sobre el 'derecho a la ciudad', especialmente a la luz de su reciente reapropiación burguesa. La argumentación intenta redefinir el celebrado ideal radical que Lefebvre acuñara a finales de los 60, reubicándolo en el contexto de neoliberalismo global contemporáneo, negándolo a través de su superación, afirmando en su lugar la necesidad de una 'política del encuentro'. Si un concepto no encajaba, si, de algún modo, no funcionaba, Lefebvre insistía en que debíamos abandonarlo, entregarlo al enemigo. Quizás sea esto lo que debemos hacer con el derecho a la ciudad. La utilidad política de un concepto, dice Lefebvre, no consiste en que se corresponda con la realidad, sino que nos permita experimentar con ella, que nos ayude a ver otra realidad, una realidad virtual que está allí, en alguna parte, esperando nacer, dentro de nosotros. Así, sugiero que una política del encuentro nos obliga a encontrarnos a nosotros mismos, concretamente, junto a los demás; no consiste en una reclamación de derechos superficial y abstracta de algo que se ha vuelto redundante en una época en que la urbanización planetaria se ha convertido en un circuito de capital más. Palabras clave: Henri Lefebvre, política del encuentro, urbanización planetaria. Abstract One of Henri Lefebvre's last essays, "Quand la ville se perd dans une métamorphose planétaire," published in Le monde diplomatique in 1989, is by far one of his most enigmatic. The title alone says bundles; an atypically downbeat Lefebvre is on show, two-years before death, dying like his cherished traditional city: when the city loses its way, he says, when it goes astray, in a planetary metamorphosis. This article mobilizes Lefebvre's valedictory lament. It does so to problematize his very own thesis on "the right to the city," especially in the light of recent bourgeois re-appropriation. The discussion tries to rework and reframe Lefebvre's celebrated late-60s' radical ideal, propelling it into the contemporary neo-liberal global context, negating it by moving beyond it, affirming in its stead a "politics of the encounter." If a concept didn't fit, somehow didn't work, Lefebvre insists that we should always ditch that concept, abandon it, give it up to the enemy. So, too, perhaps, with the right to the city. The political utility of a concept, Lefebvre says, isn't that it should tally with reality, but that it enables us to experiment with reality, that it helps us glimpse another reality, a virtual reality that's there, somewhere, waiting to be born, inside us. A politics of encounter, I suggest, forces us to encounter ourselves, concretely, alongside others; it doesn't make facile, abstract rights claims for something that's now redundant in an age when planetary urbanization has become another circuit of capital. Keywords: Henri Lefebvre, politics of the encounter, planetary urbanization.

Behind a high stonewall surrounding a rural farmhouse in Auvergne, Guy Debord, the ex‐Situationist theorist and activist, retreated. The grungy, cheap‐thrill Parisian urbanism of his youth was no more. Paris had died in his arms of a fatal illness that has seen off other great cities. Economic forces and planning initiatives had assassinated his rebel underworld, and culprits are still at large, still awaiting trial in the people's court. This essay embraces Debord the other side of the wall, dialoging with Pierre Mac Orlan, one of his favorite novelists. In so doing, we enter the phantasmal zone of the sentimental city, the city both real and make‐believe, defunct and yet‐to‐be. Mac Orlan's ideas about passive and active adventuring are explored here, to unlock the Pandora's box of Debord's urbanism. The essay approaches the capitalist city with a poetic gloss and reveals a realm richer and deeper than most social scientific urban research can grasp. Alongside Mac Orlan, Debord retraces his steps through urban ruins, and recaptures an everyday melancholy of backstreets and damaged people, of twilight nooks and crannies and shadowy bars. In Debord's sentimental city, it isn't so much the past that one regrets as the future.Derrière un haut mur de pierre entourant une ferme d'Auvergne, s'est retiré Guy Debord, l'ancien théoricien et militant situationniste. L'urbanisme parisien minable et décadent de sa jeunesse n'existait plus. Paris était mort dans ses bras d'une maladie désastreuse qui a emporté d'autres grandes villes. Forces économiques et initiatives d'aménagement ont assassiné son milieu rebelle et les coupables courent encore, dans l'attente d'un procès populaire. Cet essai voit Debord de l'autre côté du mur en train de dialoguer avec Pierre Mac Orlan, l'un de ses écrivains favoris. Ainsi, nous entrons dans l'illusion de la ville sentimentale, ville à la fois réelle et imaginaire, défunte et survivante. Les idées de Mac Orlan sur l'aventurier actif et passif y sont examinées afin d'ouvrir la boîte de Pandore de l'urbanisme selon Debord. L'approche de la ville capitaliste revêt un vernis poétique, révélant un univers plus riche et plus profond que ce qui peut être saisi par la plupart des recherches urbaines en sciences sociales. Aux côtés de Mac Orlan, Debord revient sur ses pas, traversant des ruines urbaines, retrouvant une mélancolie au quotidien des bas‐quartiers et d'une pègre abîmée, des coins et recoins obscurs et des bars mal éclairés. Dans la ville sentimentale de Debord, ce n'est pas tant le passé que l'on regrette, mais plutôt l'avenir.

Describes the threat of eviction that poor SRO tenants in New York City's Harlem and Upper West Side neighborhoods face as landlords and real estate developers seek to convert SRO housing stock into upscale rental, co-op, and condominium units; focuses on the West Side SRO Law Project, a tenant advocacy organization.

The implications of Karl Marx's treatment of the connection between capitalism & the city for developing a critique of class within present-day US cities are examined. An overview of Marx's notion of commodity fetishism & its influence on succeeding generations of Marxist thinkers is presented; additional attention is dedicated toward exploring differences between the notions of urbanism & urbanization. Whereas urbanization has significantly benefited certain economic sectors, it is contended that such processes have negatively affected American urban centers. It is subsequently asserted that class in the urban US is now defined in relation to both urbanism & urbanization. After noting that Marx viewed class as a highly dynamic process, it is claimed that class consciousness has emerged within the urban US & has facilitated the creation of class-based movements in several American cities. The need for leftist organizers to capture & direct this class-conscious sentiment is stressed. J. W. Parker