Rights to the city: class and difference in Mumbai and Hong Kong

Bart Wissink

International Journal of Housing Policy, 2015, vol. 15, issue 3, 323-346

Abstract: In a setting of globalisation, rapid urbanisation, and neoliberal state restructuring, cities around the world have witnessed a dramatic increase in urban controversies over housing and other urban services. In theory and practice, the ‘right to the city’ is often invoked to support claims of underprivileged groups in these struggles. On the one hand, this draws attention to obstacles for inhabitants to access urban spaces (appropriation); on the other hand, it suggests that inhabitants should have a meaningful contribution to all decisions that determine the development of their cities (participation). Some argue that the right to the city can organise various underprivileged groups with diverse interests behind a common agenda for ‘real’ change. We reflect on that position through a discussion of three controversies in Hong Kong and Mumbai. We conclude that in actual cities, there is often not a clear-cut differentiation between the interests of elites and underprivileged groups as both class and difference inform subject positions. Diverse groups thus assert diverse rights, resulting in conflicts between mixed coalitions of elites and underprivileged groups. Strategies to mobilise agents of change will have to speak to this heterogeneity of identities and interests in concrete settings.

Date: 2015
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/14616718.2014.993020 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:intjhp:v:15:y:2015:i:3:p:323-346

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/REUJ20

DOI: 10.1080/14616718.2014.993020

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Housing Policy is currently edited by Professor Suzanne Fitzpatrick, Gerard van Bortel and Richard Ronald

More articles in International Journal of Housing Policy from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().