Civic City Cahier 1: Social Movements in the (Post-)Neoliberal City

Margit Mayer looks at contemporary social movements that contest neoliberal urban development by invoking the Right to the City, a motto originally coined by Henri Lefèbvre in the 1960s. Mayer contrasts these new movements to those of previous phases in postwar, political-economic development, and thus establishes a set of correspondences between consecutive urban regimes and shifting forms of contestation. This framework helps to identify the novelty of progressive movements within the (post-)neoliberal city – as well as to explore ?the scope of meanings attached to their demand for the Right to the City, which has become such a defining feature of current urban struggles not just in the Euro-American core, but around the world. Social Movements in the (Post-)Neoliberal City discusses the implications of the current economic crisis for ?the Right to the City movements, and speculates about what these movements might imply for designing the (post-)neoliberal city.

The Civic City Cahier series intends to provide material for a critical discussion about the role of design for a new social city. It publishes short monographic texts by authors who specialise in urban and design theory and practice.