Appropriating the Concept of the Right to the City: Politics, Politicians, and Collective Actors in Mexico City☆

Abstract

This article takes into consideration the importance of the concept of right to the city in Mexico City politics and raises three main questions: How have center-left governments adapted the concept according to their own interests, in a neoliberalizing context marked by mandatory repositioning of planning and capital? How has the right to the city been taken up and modified by diverse social organizations aimed at influencing the production of urban space? To what extent has the concept, despite manipulations and misunderstandings, proved to be politically useful in bridging differences between government agencies and social movements? I focus on the social life of the concept. I suggest that its widespread dissemination has not meant its trivialization. On the contrary, the concept has taken on greater sociological complexity. It was not turned into a fixed concept, rather it became both a field of contention and a tool enabling political encounters.