‘The Production of Space’, in: Frans Jacobi, Imagine, Space Poetry, Copenhagen, 1996, unpaginated.

The Production of Space

We may not be able to make you love reading, but archaeology of knowledge will lead you to love reading starting from now. Book is the window to open the new world. The world that you want is in the better stage and level. World will always guide you to even the prestige stage of the life. You know, this is some of how reading will give you the kindness. In this case, more books you read more knowledge you know, but it can mean also the bore is full.

The archaeology of knowledge

All these premises having, as I think, been clearly made out, it is impossible that the rulers now on earth should make any benefit, or derive any the least shadow of authority from that, which is held to be the fountain of all power, Adam's private dominion and paternal jurisdiction; so that he that will not give just occasion to think that all government in the world is the product only of force and violence, and that men live together by no other rules but that of beasts, where the strongest carries it, and so lay a foundation for perpetual disorder and mischief, tumult, sedition and rebellion, (things that the followers of that hypothesis so loudly cry out against) must of necessity find out another rise of government, another original of political power, and another way of designing and knowing the persons that have it, than what Sir Robert Filmer hath taught us.

Two Treatises of Government.

Between Facts and Norms: Contributions to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy

Human beings are described by many spiritual traditions as ‘blind’ or ‘asleep’ or ‘in a dream.’ These terms refers to the limited attenuated state of consciousness of most human beings caught up in patterns of conditioned thought, feeling and perception, which prevent the development of our latent, higher spiritual possibilities. In the words of Idries Shah: “Man, like a sleepwalker who suddenly ‘comes to’ on some lonely road has in general no correct idea as to his origins or his destiny.” In some religious traditions, such as Christianity and Islam, the myth of the ‘Fall from the Garden of Eden’ symbolizes the loss of the primordial state through the veiling of higher consciousness. Other traditions use similar metaphors to describe the spiritual condition of humanity:

The Human Condition.

A strong current of food-systems research holds that local food systems are preferable to systems at larger scales. Many assume that eating local food is more ecologically sustainable and socially ...

Avoiding the Local Trap Scale and Food Systems in Planning Research

Much current activism and scholarship has raised concern that the various processes of neoliberal restructuring are threatening democracy More specifically, researchers in geography and other social sciences have stressed that political and economic restructuring in cities is negatively affecting the enfranchisement of urban residents Much recent research and writing has explored progressive responses to this perceived disenfranchisement in cities One popular trend has been a fascination with the idea of the `right to the city' as a way to respond to neoliberal urbanism and better empower urban dwellers I argue that the right to the city holds promise, but that in the literature the idea remains both theoretically and politically underdeveloped It remains unclear (1) what the right to the city entails or (2) how it might address current problems of disenfranchisement This paper examines the right to the city in greater depth It does so by offering a close reading and analysis of the intellectual roots of the idea: the writings of Henri Lefebvre I suggest that Lefebvre's right to the city is more radical, more problematic, and more indeterminate than the current literature makes it seem The paper concludes by suggesting that the right to the city does offer distinct potential for resisting current threats to urban enfranchisement However, the right to the city is not a panacea It must be seen not as a completed solution to current problems, but as an opening to a new urban politics, what I call an urban politics of the inhabitant

/pdf/excavating-lefebvre-the-right-to-the-city-and-its-urban-4ggugeov4t.pdf

Excavating Lefebvre: The right to the city and its urban politics of the inhabitant

This article joins many contemporary activists and scholars in criticizing and seeking alternatives to the ongoing neoliberalization of the global political economy. It sets out two main arguments: (1) in order to resist the growing control of capital over the global political economy, one important project is to develop new notions of citizenship that expand the decision-making control of citizens; and (2) Henri Lefebvre's concept of ‘the right to the city’ is one particularly fertile set of principles on which to base such alternative citizenships because it resists and rethinks both traditional citizenship forms and capitalist social relations. The first part of the article outlines the context in which Lefebvre's ideas might be pursued by examining the contemporary destabilization of traditional citizenship and its relationship to global political and economic restructuring. The second part of the article develops more specifically the potential of Lefebvrian citizenship by constructing a theoretical sketch of one possible citizenship based on Lefebvre's idea: what I call the right to the global city. The article finishes by suggesting that the right to the city can be extended beyond the urban context. It points toward a new set of more democratic political relationships in which the power of inhabitants to shape the global political economy displaces the power of capital and the nation-state.



Cet article fait echo a nombre de militants et d'intellectuels contemporains critiquant la neoliberalisation actuelle de l'economie politique mondiale, et y cherchant des alternatives. Il expose deux arguments principaux: d'abord, pour resister au contro le croissant du capital sur l'economie politique mondiale, un grand projet doit definir de nouvelles notions de citoyennete qui permettent aux citoyens de mieux maitriser les decisions; ensuite, le concept de ‘droit a la ville’ d'Henri Lefebvre est un ensemble particulierement productif de principes utilisables pour asseoir ces citoyennetes alternatives, car il repousse et repense a la fois les formes de citoyennete traditionnelles et les relations sociales capitalistes. La premiere partie de l'article delimite le cadre dans lequel les concepts de Lefebvre pourraient s'appliquer, en examinant la destabilisation contemporaine de la citoyennete classique et son lien avec la restructuration politico-economique mondiale. La seconde partie developpe le potentiel de la citoyennete selon Lefebvre en ebauchant une possible citoyennete theorique basee sur son idee: ce que j'appelle le droit a la ville mondiale. L'article se termine en suggerant que le droit a la ville peut s'etendre au-dela du contexte urbain. Il vise un nouvel ensemble de relations politiques plus democratiques ou le pouvoir des habitants pour faconner l'economie politique mondiale supplante celui du capital et de l'Etatnation.

https://faculty.washington.edu/mpurcell/ijurr.pdf

Citizenship and the right to the global city: reimagining the capitalist world order

https://faculty.washington.edu/mpurcell/geoforum.pdf

There’s nothing inherent about scale: political ecology, the local trap, and the politics of development in the Brazilian Amazon

This paper argues against the local trap-the tendency to assume that the local scale is preferable to other scales. The local trap is an important problem in the recent explosion of research on urb...

/pdf/urban-democracy-and-the-local-trap-4bskvw1gsh.pdf

Mark Purcell

Papers

Avoiding the Local Trap Scale and Food Systems in Planning Research

Excavating Lefebvre: The right to the city and its urban politics of the inhabitant

Citizenship and the right to the global city: reimagining the capitalist world order

There’s nothing inherent about scale: political ecology, the local trap, and the politics of development in the Brazilian Amazon

Urban Democracy and the Local Trap