Rights and the City: Problems, Progress, and Practice

by Sandeep Agrawal (Editor), Benjamin Davy (Afterword)

Overview

Rights and the City takes stock of rights struggles and progress in cities by exploring the tensions that exist between different concepts of rights. Sandeep Agrawal and the volume’s contributors expose the paradoxes that planners and municipal governments face when attempting not only to combat discriminatory practices, but also advance a human rights agenda. The authors examine the legal, conceptual, and philosophical aspects of rights, including its various forms—human, Indigenous, housing, property rights, and various other forms of rights. Using empirical evidence and examples, they translate the philosophical and legal aspects of rights into more practical terms and applications. Regionally, the book draws on municipalities from across Canada while also making broad international comparisons. Scholars, policy makers, and activists with an interest in urban studies, planning, and law will find much of value throughout this volume. Afterword by Benjamin Davy.

Contributors: Sandeep Agrawal, Rachelle Alterman, Sasha Best, Alexandra Flynn, Eran S. Kaplinsky, Ola P. Malik, Jennifer A. Orange, Michelle L. Oren, Renée Vaugeois. Afterword by Benjamin Davy

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781772126266
Publisher:	University of Alberta Press
Publication date:	09/20/2022
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Sandeep Agrawal is Professor and inaugural Director of the School of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Alberta.

Table of Contents

• Acknowledgments
• Introduction | Sandeep Agrawal
• I THE RIGHT TO THE CITY
• 1 | Whose Right to What City? Indigenous Rights amidst Claims for Constitutionally Empowered Cities | Alexandra Flynn
• 2 | The Right to the City as an Emerging Norm: Codification and Cultural Institutions | Jennifer A. Orange
• II RIGHTS IN THE CITY
• 3 | Human Rights and the City in the Pre-Charter Era | Sandeep Agrawal
• 4 | Group Rights and Collective Rights: What Are They and How Do They Affect Urban Issues? | Sandeep Agrawal & Eran S. Kaplinsky
• 5 | Human Rights and Canadian Municipalities | Sandeep Agrawal
• 6 | Becoming a Human Rights City: Lessons from Edmonton | Renée Vaugeois
• III OTHER RIGHTS IN THE CITY
• 7 | The Right to Adequate Housing Around the Globe: Analysis and Evaluation of National Constitutions | Michelle L. Oren & Rachelle Alterman
• 8 | Property Rights and the Canadian City | Eran S. Kaplinsky
• 9 | The Dangers of Allowing "Othering" Speech in a City’s Public Spaces | Ola P. Malik & Sasha Best
• Afterword: After Rights? | Benjamin Davy
• Contributors

Editorial Reviews

"Rights and the City provides a nuanced understanding of the ethical dilemmas and trade-offs that state and local governments endure in the process of changing their legal-institutional frameworks to enforce human rights." —Ana Paula Pimentel Walker, University of Michigan
"This book is a collection of essays on the subject of human rights and cities with an emphasis on Canadian cities....this collection is worth reading." W. Dennis Keating, Journal of Urban Affairs, May 17, 2023 (Full review at: https://doi.org/10.1080/07352166.2023.2195779)
"In Rights and the City, editor Sandeep Agrawal, professor of urban planning at the University of Alberta, uses the influential theories of Henri Lefebvre, a French philosopher and sociologist, to organize this collection and to illustrate the way ahead in order for our rights to and in cities to become truly entrenched." Ximena Gonzales, Alberta Views, April 26, 2023 [Full review at https://albertaviews.ca/rights-and-the-city/]
"In my view, the main contribution of the volume … is to bring renewed attention to the relevance of legal rights in the realm of urban planning and politics, as well as to illustrate how they can serve to disadvantage or push for the protection of already marginalized groups in society in practical terms. To do this, the book offers well-researched examples, most of which show how these debates unfold at the municipal level. This approach will be especially useful for readers and practitioners whose work lies at the intersection of policy analysis, program design, and planning through a rights-based lens." Magdelana Ugarte, Canadian Planning and Policy, Volume 2023

From the Publisher