The city and the planet

Abstract

Beyond the discussion of such so-called ‘urban problems,’ it is worth paying attention to the question as to whether cities, notably large cities, would themselves be part of the solution or rather of the problem. Inspired by Henri Lefebvre’s theses on ‘urban society,’ recent discussions on ‘planetary urbanisation’ are deeply embedded in values such as Eurocentrism and a clear urban middle-class bias. It seems that to radically rethink social relations, technology and the spatial organisation of society, in order to avoid both an uncritical and often ethnocentric ‘urbanophilia’ and a naïve (if not reactionary) ‘urbanophobia,’ is a necessary task. The aim of this paper is to discuss the intellectual and ethical-political relevance of this kind of debate.