This summary provides an overview of the key points from the document in 3 sentences: The document reviews David Harvey's book "Rebel Cities" which discusses how urbanization helps absorb capital surplus and addresses crises of overproduction through real estate booms. It also examines the "urban growth machine" that benefits the wealthy and increases inequality, as well as issues of gentrification and protecting the "urban commons." The document concludes by discussing models of civic organization proposed by thinkers like Ostrom and Bookchin that are designed to give citizens more control over their communities through horizontal and nested structures.

1. A review of
David Harvey’s
REBEL CITIES:
From the Right to the City
to the Urban Revolution
by Eleni Katrini
Carnegie Mellon University, Fall 2013

2. 0 the author; David Harvey
http://vimeo.com/davidharvey/videos

3. 1 urbanization & capital apsorption
2 the urban growth machine
3 monopoly rent + identity
4 gentrification + the tragedy of urban commons
5 structures of civic organization

4. 1 urbanization & capital apsorption
“The politics of capitalism are affected by the perpetual need
to find profitable terrains for capital surplus production and absorption.
In this the capitalist faces a number of obstacles to continuous and trouble-free expansion.”

5. 1 urbanization & capital apsorption
The politics of capitalism are affected by the perpetual need
to find profitable terrains for capital surplus production and absorption.
In this the capitalist faces a number of obstacles to continuous and trouble-free expansion.
AFFECTED
PRODUCTION
problem
scarcity of labor
solution
problem
solution
fresh labor found
not enough
purchasing labor
in existing market
increase of wages
AFFECTED
PURCHASING
POWER
wages adjusted
creation of new
lifestyles & values
*

6. 1 urbanization & capital apsorption
capital surplus absorption

7. 1 urbanization & capital apsorption
Baron Haussmann
source: http://www.parisapied.net/A%20abecedaire.htm
http://spargelandfraise.wordpress.com/2011/05/
www.wikipedia.com

8. 1 urbanization & capital apsorption
Robert Moses
A model of the 1964 World’s Fair, one of Robert Moses’s final projects.
sources: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/06/nyregion/thecity/06hist.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/113735/urban-planning-dictatorial-planners-image-rehabilitated

9. 2000 crisis
1987 crisis
1973 crisis
1929 crisis
1 urbanization & capital apsorption
Property booms that preceded the crashes of 1929, 1973, 1987, and 2000 stand out like a pikestaff. The buildings we see around us in New
York City, they poignantly note, represent “more than architectural movement; they were largely the manifestation of a widespread phenomenon”.
(Goetzmann and Newman)

10. 2 the urban growth machine
33.8%
top
1% U.S. citizens)
(wealthiest
top
85%
20%U.S. citizens)
(wealthiest
bottom
40% citizens)
(poorest U.S.
0.20%
US total wealth

11. 3 monopoly rent + identity
$ Price of land
+ Human activity & urban commons

12. 4 gentrification + the tragedy of urban commons
new development
$ Price of land
the tragedy of the Urban Commons

13. 5 structures of civic organization
So how can this urban regeneration and transformation happen by the citizens for themselves and not for serving
the market? What are the social structures that need to be formed to promote the citizens’ and communities’ welfare
instead of the financial benefits of a few?

14. 5 structures of civic organization
horizontal structures - limitations in scale

15. 5 structures of civic organization
Elinor Ostrom
+
collective ways of organization
nested structures in larger scalers
governing the commons
Source: http://im-an-economist.blogspot.com/2012/03/evening-with-elinor-ostrom.html
Source: http://ecosocialismcanada.blogspot.com/2012/08/murray-bookchin-man-who-brought-radical.html
Murray Bookchin
confederalism
social ecology

16. 5 structures of civic organization
nested horizontal structures

17. “The central question in this study is how a group of principals who are in
an interdependent situation can organize and govern themselves to obtain
continuing joint benefits when all face temptations to free-ride, shirk, or
otherwise act opportunistically.” Ostrom (1990)
hyerarchical structure
5 structures of civic organization
A union of states in which each member state retains some independent control over
internal and external affairs. Thus, for international purposes, there are separate states,
not just one state. A federation, in contrast, is a union of states in which external affairs
are controlled by a unified, central government.
Source: http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Confederalism
confederalism

18. -- conclusion
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
Buckminister Fuller