Sustainable Cities, Common Home: Integrating Laudato Si’s Ethical Vision into the Right to the City
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.19184/csi.v5i2.52977Abstract
This article undertakes an analysis of the alignment between the right to the city and Laudato Si’s, an encyclical issued by Pope Francis in 2015 to critique the global damages resulting from unchecked growth. The Laudato Si’s perspective offers a means to integrate ethical considerations into human rights law, providing a normative framework for sustainable development. By adopting the Laudato Si’s viewpoint, this article asserts that the concept of the right to the city should coincide with an awareness that cities represent a common home for multiple species, thereby necessitating a shift away from anthropocentrism. Consequently, the interests of humans and ecology within the right to the city must be balanced. To achieve this equilibrium, the development of the right to the city concept should provide a normative framework to: (1) curb the rapidification trend in urban development conflicting with the naturally slow pace of biological evolution, (2) eliminate the privatization of spaces restricting citizens's access to basic needs, and (3) reinforce community participation, especially among the poor and vulnerable, in urban planning. Undoubtedly, the realization of such a normative framework faces challenges within a developmentalist state oriented towards high economic growth.
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References
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———. Social Justice and the City (Revised Edition). Athens & London: The University of Georgia Press, 2009.
Heuvel, Steven C. van den. “The Theocentric Perspective of Laudato Si’: A Critical Discussion.†Philosophia Reformata 83, no. 1 (May 19, 2018): 51–67. doi:10.1163/23528230-08301004.
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Marcuse, Peter. “Rights in Cities and the Right to the City?†In Cities for All: Proposals and Experiences towards the Right to the City, edited by Ana Sugranyes and Charlotte Mathivet, 87–98. Santiago: Habitat International Coalition, 2001.
Martins, Alexandre A. “Laudato Si ’: Integral Ecology and Preferential Option for the Poor.†Journal of Religious Ethics 46, no. 3 (September 30, 2018): 410–24. doi:10.1111/jore.12224.
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Paszkowski, Zbigniew W. “Who Is Responsible for the Development of the City?†Przestrzeń i Forma 40 (December 16, 2019): 203–20. doi:10.21005/pif.2019.40.C-05.
Pope Francis. “Laudato Si’ [On Care for Our Common Home] [Encyclical Letter],†2015. http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html.
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———. “Possible Worlds: Henri Lefebvre and the Right to the City.†Journal of Urban Affairs 36, no. 1 (February 2014): 141–54. doi:10.1111/juaf.12034.
Sachs, Wolfgang. “The Sustainable Development Goals and Laudato Si’ : Varieties of Post-Development?†Third World Quarterly 38, no. 12 (December 2, 2017): 2573–87. doi:10.1080/01436597.2017.1350822.
Shingne, Marie Carmen, and Laura A. Reese. “Animals in the City: Wither the Human-Animal Divide.†Journal of Urban Affairs 44, no. 2 (February 7, 2022): 114–36. doi:10.1080/07352166.2020.1779006.
Simha, Aditya, and Michael R. Carey. “The Encyclical Letter ( Caritas in Veritate )—A Shout-out to Social Entrepreneurship?†The Journal of Entrepreneurship 21, no. 1 (March 8, 2012): 1–23. doi:10.1177/097135571102100101.
Soetoprawiro, Koerniatmanto. Bukan Kapitalisme Bukan Sosialisme. Yogyakarta: Kanisius, 2003.
Souza, Marcelo Lopes De. “Which Right to Which City? In Defence of Political-Strategic Clarity.†Interface 2, no. 1 (2010): 315–33.
Yigitcanlar, Tan, Marcus Foth, and Md. Kamruzzaman. “Towards Post-Anthropocentric Cities: Reconceptualizing Smart Cities to Evade Urban Ecocide.†Journal of Urban Technology 26, no. 2 (April 3, 2019): 147–52. doi:10.1080/10630732.2018.1524249.
Attoh, Kafui A. “What Kind of Right Is the Right to the City?†Progress in Human Geography 35, no. 5 (October 14, 2011): 669–85. doi:10.1177/0309132510394706.
Bleviss, Deborah L. “Transportation Is Critical to Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the United States.†WIREs Energy and Environment 10, no. 2 (March 13, 2021). doi:10.1002/wene.390.
Burdon, Peter, and Samuel Alexander. “Earth Jurisprudence: Anthropocentrism and Neoliberal Rationality.†In The Routledge Handbook of International Law and Anthropocentrism, edited by Vincent Chapaux, Frédéric Mégret, and Usha Natarajan, 215–30. London: Routledge, 2023.
Bush, Judy, and Andréanne Doyon. “Building Urban Resilience with Nature-Based Solutions: How Can Urban Planning Contribute?†Cities 95 (December 2019): 102483. doi:10.1016/j.cities.2019.102483.
Czarnocka, Małgorzata. “Instrumental Reason and Science—Max Horkheimer’s View.†Dialogue and Universalism 32, no. 2 (2022): 175–96. doi:10.5840/du202232234.
Desmond, Matthew. “Unaffordable America: Poverty, Housing, and Eviction.†In The Affordable Housing Reader, edited by Elizabeth Mueller and J. Rosie Tighe, 389–95. London: Routledge, 2022.
Desmond, Matthew, and Monica Bell. “Housing, Poverty, and the Law.†Annual Review of Law and Social Science 11, no. 1 (November 3, 2015): 15–35. doi:10.1146/annurev-lawsocsci-120814-121623.
Fricaudet, Magali. “Is the Right to the City a Right or a Revolution.†In Social Ecology and the Right to the City: Towards Ecological and Democratic Cities, edited by Federico Venturini, Emet Değirmenci, and Inés Morales, 58–67. Montreal/Chicago/London: Black Rose Books, 2019.
Gruijters, Rochus-Antonin (Roman). “Solidarity, the Common Good and Social Justice in the Catholic Social Teaching within the Framework of Globalization.†Philosophia Reformata 81, no. 1 (May 4, 2016): 14–31. doi:10.1163/23528230-08101002.
Harvey, David. Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution. London & New York: Verso, 2012.
———. Social Justice and the City (Revised Edition). Athens & London: The University of Georgia Press, 2009.
Heuvel, Steven C. van den. “The Theocentric Perspective of Laudato Si’: A Critical Discussion.†Philosophia Reformata 83, no. 1 (May 19, 2018): 51–67. doi:10.1163/23528230-08301004.
Hubbard, Phil, and Andrew Brooks. “Animals and Urban Gentrification: Displacement and Injustice in the Trans-Species City.†Progress in Human Geography 45, no. 6 (December 8, 2021): 1490–1511. doi:10.1177/0309132520986221.
Imanaka, Jessica Ludescher, Greg Prussia, and Samantha Alexis. “Laudato Si’ and Integral Ecology: A Reconceptualization of Sustainability.†Journal of Management for Global Sustainability 5, no. 1 (June 1, 2017): 39–61. doi:10.13185/JM2017.05112.
Kębłowski, Wojciech, Mathieu Van Criekingen, and David Bassens. “Moving Past the Sustainable Perspectives on Transport: An Attempt to Mobilise Critical Urban Transport Studies with the Right to the City.†Transport Policy 81 (September 2019): 24–34. doi:10.1016/j.tranpol.2019.05.012.
Koop, S. H. A., and C. J. van Leeuwen. “The Challenges of Water, Waste and Climate Change in Cities.†Environment, Development and Sustainability 19, no. 2 (April 1, 2017): 385–418. doi:10.1007/s10668-016-9760-4.
Kymäläinen, Päivi. “Legal Geography I: Everyday Law.†Progress in Human Geography, March 4, 2024, 1–10. doi:10.1177/03091325241237352.
Lefebvre, Henri. The Urban Revolution. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2003.
———. Writings on Cities. Oxford: Blackwell, 1996.
Marcuse, Peter. “Rights in Cities and the Right to the City?†In Cities for All: Proposals and Experiences towards the Right to the City, edited by Ana Sugranyes and Charlotte Mathivet, 87–98. Santiago: Habitat International Coalition, 2001.
Martins, Alexandre A. “Laudato Si ’: Integral Ecology and Preferential Option for the Poor.†Journal of Religious Ethics 46, no. 3 (September 30, 2018): 410–24. doi:10.1111/jore.12224.
Mathivet, Charlotte. “The Right to the City: Keys to Understanding the Proposal for "Another City Is Possible.†In Cities for All. Proposals and Experiences towards the Right to the City, edited by Ana Sugranyes and Charlotte Mathivet, 21–26. Santiago: Habitat International Coalition, 2010.
Molina, M. Carmen, and Magui Pérez-Garrido. “LAUDATO SI’ and Its Influence on Sustainable Development Five Years Later: A First LOOK at the Academic Productivity Associated to This Encyclical.†Environmental Development 43 (September 2022): 100726. doi:10.1016/j.envdev.2022.100726.
Paszkowski, Zbigniew W. “Who Is Responsible for the Development of the City?†Przestrzeń i Forma 40 (December 16, 2019): 203–20. doi:10.21005/pif.2019.40.C-05.
Pope Francis. “Laudato Si’ [On Care for Our Common Home] [Encyclical Letter],†2015. http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html.
Purcell, Mark. “Excavating Lefebvre: The Right to the City and Its Urban Politics of the Inhabitant.†GeoJournal 58, no. 2–3 (2002): 99–108. doi:10.1023/b:gejo.0000010829.62237.8f.
———. “Possible Worlds: Henri Lefebvre and the Right to the City.†Journal of Urban Affairs 36, no. 1 (February 2014): 141–54. doi:10.1111/juaf.12034.
Sachs, Wolfgang. “The Sustainable Development Goals and Laudato Si’ : Varieties of Post-Development?†Third World Quarterly 38, no. 12 (December 2, 2017): 2573–87. doi:10.1080/01436597.2017.1350822.
Shingne, Marie Carmen, and Laura A. Reese. “Animals in the City: Wither the Human-Animal Divide.†Journal of Urban Affairs 44, no. 2 (February 7, 2022): 114–36. doi:10.1080/07352166.2020.1779006.
Simha, Aditya, and Michael R. Carey. “The Encyclical Letter ( Caritas in Veritate )—A Shout-out to Social Entrepreneurship?†The Journal of Entrepreneurship 21, no. 1 (March 8, 2012): 1–23. doi:10.1177/097135571102100101.
Soetoprawiro, Koerniatmanto. Bukan Kapitalisme Bukan Sosialisme. Yogyakarta: Kanisius, 2003.
Souza, Marcelo Lopes De. “Which Right to Which City? In Defence of Political-Strategic Clarity.†Interface 2, no. 1 (2010): 315–33.
Yigitcanlar, Tan, Marcus Foth, and Md. Kamruzzaman. “Towards Post-Anthropocentric Cities: Reconceptualizing Smart Cities to Evade Urban Ecocide.†Journal of Urban Technology 26, no. 2 (April 3, 2019): 147–52. doi:10.1080/10630732.2018.1524249.
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