The Politics of the Encounter: Urban Theory and Protest Under Planetary Urbanization

Description

The Politics of the Encounter is a spirited interrogation of the city as a site of both theoretical inquiry and global social struggle. The city, writes Andy Merrifield, remains "important, virtually and materially, for progressive politics." And yet, he notes, more than forty years have passed since Henri Lefebvre advanced the powerful ideas that still undergird much of our thinking about urbanization and urban society. Merrifield rethinks the city in light of the vast changes to our planet since 1970, when Lefebvre's seminal Urban Revolution was first published. At the same time, he expands on Lefebvre's notion of "the right to the city," which was first conceived in the wake of the 1968 student uprising in Paris. We need to think less of cities as "entities with borders and clear demarcations between what's inside and what's outside" and emphasize instead the effects of "planetary urbanization," a concept of Lefebvre's that Merrifield makes relevant for the ways we now experience the urban. The city—from Tahrir Square to Occupy Wall Street—seems to be the critical zone in which a new social protest is unfolding, yet dissenters' aspirations are transcending the scale of the city physically and philosophically. Consequently, we must shift our perspective from "the right to the city" to "the politics of the encounter," says Merrifield. We must ask how revolutionary crowds form, where they draw their energies from, what kind of spaces they occur in—and what kind of new spaces they produce. Andy Merrifield is an independent scholar based in the United Kingdom and France. His books include Magical Marxism: Subversive Politics and the Imagination, The Wisdom of Donkeys: Finding Tranquility in a Chaotic World, Metromarxism: A Marxist Tale of the City, and Dialectical Urbanism. New cover, full table of contents Cover Title Page Copyright Dedication Preface Contents Preface: The Personal and the Political: A Different Kind of Blue 1. The Final Frontier: Planetary Urbanization I. Perspective and Prospective II. Blind Fields and Ways of Seeing III. Concrete Abstractions and Abstract Expressionism IV. Interlude: On World Market Street V. Lost Cities 2. Here Comes Everybody: Problematizing the Right to the City I. HCE and RTTC II. RTTC Then: A Brief History of a Concept III. RTTC Now: A Brief Reality of a Concept IV. From RTTC to the Politics of the Encounter? 3. The Urban Consolidates: Centrality and Citizenship I. Abstract-Expressive Urbanization II. Urban Uncertainty Principle: The Dialectics of Centrality III. Spiritual Citizenship of the Universe VI. The Global “Family of Eyes” 4. The Politics of the Encounter I. Taking Hold by Surprise II. Encountering the Urban, Urban Encounters III. Occupation as Encounter IV. Here Comes Everybuddy V. Encountering Space, Spaces of Encounter 5. The Planetary Urbanization of Nonwork I. Postwork and Urban Society II. The Urbanization of the “General Intellect” III. The Flea Market in the Free Market IV. Nonwork and the Postcity: Encounters on World Market Street 6. Revolutionary Rehearsals? I. Encounters in Transition II. Encountering the Crowd in the Encounter III. Smart Mobs and Flash Crowds IV. From Flash Crowds to Fused Groups V. A Note on Radical Fusion: Collideorscapes, Wormholes, and Minor Space 7. Imaginary Pragmatics and the Enigma of Revolt Notes Preface: The Personal and the Political 1. The Final Frontier 2. Here Comes Everybody 3. The Urban Consolidates 4. The Politics of the Encounter 5. The Planetary Urbanization of Nonwork 6. Revolutionary Rehearsals? 7. Imaginary Pragmatics and the Enigma of Revolt Index Series: Geographies of Justice and Social Transformation