Humanism, creativity and rights: invoking Henri Lefebvre’s right to the city in the tension presented by informal settlements in South Africa today

Presented by Professor Marie Huchzermeyer

Date: Tuesday, 12 November 2013
Time: 17h30 for 18h00
Venue: Dorothy Susskind Auditorium, John Moffat Building, East Campus, Wits
Chair: DVC: Advancement and Partnerships, Prof Rob Moore
Vote of thanks: Professor Alison Todes, followed by refreshments in the John Moffat foyer

Abstract: The reality of informal settlements and other forms of unauthorized low income dwelling in South African cities, and the frustrations that manifest in street blockades or targeted disruptions to the functioning of the city, are evidence of deep rooted exclusions that signal urgent attention to the realization of city rights. While our socio-economic rights framework is a liberal one, the ‘right to the city’ as coined by the French sociologist/philosopher Henri Lefebvre in the late 1960s stems from a Marxist humanism. The literature that considers the relevance of Lefebvre’s ‘right to the city’ for the urban condition of the 21st century largely emanates from and speaks to urban struggles in the First World or so-called ‘global north’. At the same time, a prominent shack dwellers’ movement in South Africa invokes an explicitly Lefebvrian right to the city in its urban struggles over the past eight years. In this lecture, I discuss key aspects of Lefebvre’s ‘right to the city’, in part contested, in relation to the field of tension that represents informal settlements in cities such as Johannesburg today and the social movements that have emerged from this tension. I focus in particular on Lefebvre’s humanist concept of a right to the ‘oeuvre’ or ‘creative work’ in relation to that of ‘inhabiting’. These are less explored dimensions of Lefebvre’s right to the city, but of central relevance for an engagement with informal settlements and for constructive mobilization around the South African urban condition today. 

Bio: Marie Huchzermeyer is a Professor in the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of the Witwatersrand, where she has been convening and teaching in an interdisciplinary master degree in housing over the past twelve years. From her platform at Wits, she has been able to engage in policy debates, and increasingly participated in a housing rights network which has shaped a series of Constitutional Court cases. She holds an MCPUD and PhD from UCT. Her PhD was published as a book with Africa World Press titled Unlawful Occupation: Informal Settlements and Urban Policy in South Africa and Brazil. Besides producing journal articles, book chapters, and co-editing two books with UCT Press, her more recent research culminated in two further single authored books in 2011: Cities with ‘Slums’: From Informal Settlement Eradication to a Right to the City in Africa (UCT Press) and Tenement Cities: From 19th Century Berlin to 21st Century Nairobi (Africa World Press).