Henri Lefebvre is still considered one of the greatest exponents of non-dogmatic Marxism , and among his most important legacies is " Le droit a la ville " (The Right to the City) from 1968. The right to the city is a major theme in the streets and spaces of urban centers today. By "the right to the city," Lefebvre means the possibility of accessing the city's resources, the right to participatory activity, and enjoyment beyond the right to property. This right is asserted through the appropriation of the times and spaces of urban living. Lefebvre argued for the need to reform social and economic structures and for a drastic change in the decision-making structure (Lefebvre, 1972).
The consequences of urbanization
David Harvey (2012) believes that from historical events and its history we can understand how urbanization has played a crucial role over the years in absorbing excess capital, acting on an increasingly larger geographical scale, with serious consequences. One need only think of the processes of creative destruction that have expropriated the urban masses of any right to the city. This mechanism periodically leads to revolts, such as that of the expropriated in Paris in 1871 or the urban social movements of 1968 from Paris to Bangkok, Mexico City, Chicago, Occupy Wall Street, the riots in the French banlieues in 2005 and the revolutionary explosions in Latin America between 2001 and 2005. These anti-capitalist struggles are present in cities across the world, to counter the domination of big capitalists who manage them through the use of money; Capitalists like those of the Wall Street Party, according to the geographer, understood as a group of private individuals who invest in the Wall Street stock market and are interested in maximizing their profits, above all morality and regardless of the consequences for the economy and the population. In 2011, for the first time, a social movement opposed the logic of Wall Street, and the street in front of Wall Street was occupied. This practice has spread from city to city around the world. The events date back to 2011, and today very few traces of this movement seem to remain. Today's revolutions seem to aim to occupy social media and virtual spaces rather than the public squares, and this doesn't seem to affect the leaders and isn't having the same success as the public square occupations.
The city in the hands of a few
As the world of the smart grid expands, outrage is only spreading through social media comments, but in our urban centers, inequalities are increasing and citizens' right to the city is diminishing. Sixty million people worldwide are homeless, and therefore their right to housing is diminishing. Income distribution data are not comforting, showing growing inequality even in Western countries; lower disposable income will lead to less accessibility to goods and services, and less enjoyment of the city. For Harvey, the right to the city is being managed by private individuals and confined to the privileged economic and political elite, who can shape the city according to their needs and desires.
An unintelligent city
Policymakers promise increasingly smart and inclusive cities for citizens, but within smart cities, it is large private capital companies that operate. Large ICT companies such as Cisco, IBM, and Samsung are involved in the creation of smart projectsHowever, those who operate in the financial market tend to maximize their profits and measure everything in terms of performance, which does not guarantee a better quality of life, much less a greater right to the city. Regarding the performative aspect, he also raises a criticism: Serge Latouche who argues that in reality there is no real selection in techniques and that technical methods are selected because their results can be measured in some way, so they are visible and indisputable because it is believed that this is the true path to progress. Technology is performative, so even failures and negative effects (economic, social, ecological) end up becoming successes of technology. We should ask ourselves what the consequences and repercussions of this might be. smart city on the right to the city which today seems to be the expression of a new neoliberal policy within urban centres.
Luisa Cuccu
