Understanding the City. Henri Lefebvre and Urban Studies

Understanding the City. Henri Lefebvre and Urban Studies

Henri Lefebvre, sociologie urbaine, relations sociales, espace urbain, globalisation, ville néolibérale

Henri Lefebvre is undoubtedly one of the most influential thinkers in the field of urban space and its organization; his theories offer reflections still valid for analyzing social relations in urban areas affected by the crisis of the neoliberal economic system. Lefebvre’s ideal of the “right to the city” is now more widely accepted given today’s current cultural and social situation. Most current research on Henri Lefebvre refers solely to his ideas and their theoretical discussion, without focusing on the empirical transcription of the philosopher. This book fills this gap, and proposes examples about the empirical use of Henri Lefebvre’s sociology from the perspective of different cities and researchers in order to understand the city and its evolutions in the context of neoliberal globalization. The book’s main purpose is to revisit Lefebvre’s still-relevant key concepts to propose new comprehensions of the contemporary city. Case studies in this book will show also that the reception of Lefebvrian concepts differs across different contexts, depending on the social and political circumstances of each country. The debates in this book both expand the scope of urban imagination, and help to reinvigorate, unify, and empower shared desires for just urban outcomes. The contributions to this book also illuminate the everyday choices concerning the form and social processes of the city, and the inspiration that they draw from Lefebvre’s theoretical legacy in the realm of urban sociology.

Gülçin Erdi-Lelandais received her PhD in Sociology in 2006 from Ecole des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. She has served as Lecturer and Researcher at different universities in France and spent time as Marie Curie Research Fellow at the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick. She is currently a permanent CNRS Research Fellow at the Center for Research on Cities, Territories, Environment and Societies (CITERES) at the University of Tours. Her research focuses on the analysis of contentious politics, spatial configurations, everyday resistance practices inside the city, and urban transformation. She has published several articles in journals such as International Social Science Journal and Citizenship Studies; and Altermondialistes en Turquie: Entre le cosmopolitisme politique et ancrage militant, based on her thesis, was published in 2011 by L’Harmattan in France.

Gülçin Erdi-Lelandais

http://www.cambridgescholars.com/understanding-the-city-8

Cambridge Scholars Publishing

2014-01-01

260

EN

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