Costes, L. (2011) ‘Del “derecho a la ciudad” de Henri Lefebvre a la universalidad de la urbanización moderna’, Urban NS02, pp. 1–12.

 Henri Lefebvre’s conception of the “right to the city” transcends conventional urban theory by presenting the city not merely as a built environment but as a political and existential arena through which humanity negotiates collective life, social meaning and democratic agency. Writing amidst the upheavals of the late 1960s, Lefebvre anticipated the emergence of a process he described as planetary urbanisation, whereby industrial capitalism progressively dissolves the historical distinction between city and countryside, transforming the entirety of social existence into an urban condition governed by exchange value, technocratic planning and spatial control. Within this framework, the modern city ceases to function as a communal “work” shaped by shared symbolic life and instead becomes a commodified “product” subordinated to profit, efficiency and speculative accumulation. The article demonstrates how Lefebvre foresaw phenomena now central to contemporary urban studies: suburban sprawl, metropolitan fragmentation, gated communities, algorithmic governance, social segregation and the concentration of financial power within global cities such as New York, London and Tokyo. Particularly significant is his argument that urban fragmentation constitutes not an accidental by-product of development but a deliberate class strategy embedded within capitalist spatial production. Segregated territories, privatised public spaces and peripheral marginalisation produce forms of alienation that erode citizenship itself. Yet Lefebvre simultaneously envisioned the possibility of a radical urban democracy grounded in collective participation, spatial appropriation and civic self-management. Contemporary debates surrounding spatial justice, informal settlements, ecological urbanism and global inequality continue to reactivate this legacy, especially through international initiatives defending the universal right to inhabit, shape and transform urban space. The persistence of Lefebvre’s thought reveals that the struggle over the city remains inseparable from the broader struggle over democracy, dignity and the future organisation of human coexistence.