Marxist Thought and the City

Henri Lefebvre (1901–1991) was a leading French philosopher, sociologist, and urban theorist. Many of his more than sixty books have appeared in English translation, including The Critique of Everyday Life, The Production of Space, and (all Minnesota) Dialectical Materialism; State, Space, World; and The Urban Revolution. Robert Bononno has been a translator from French for more than twenty years. His recent nonfiction translations include Toward an Architecture of Enjoyment, by Henri Lefebvre (Minnesota, 2014), Speech Begins after Death, by Michel Foucault and Claude Bonnefoy (Minnesota, 2013), and Language, Madness, and Desire by Michel Foucault (Minnesota, 2015). Stuart Elden is Professor of Political Theory and Geography at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom.

"This pithy, provocative little book brings Marxist humanism to bear on urban problems as pressing today as they were nearly half-a-century ago. Upsizing cities spell downsizing work, the coming of urban society announces the financialization of space, a crisis of industrial production begets a politics of urban reproduction-all with daunting threats as well as immanent possibilities. Dead for twenty-five years, old man Lefebvre lives on as our most visionary twenty-first-century urban thinker."-Andy Merrifield, author of Metromarxism, Magical Marxism, and The New Urban Question"Lefebvre’s work remains of enduring importance."-Stuart Elden, from the Foreword"Stimulating and resonant, suggesting new ways of attending to some classics of urban theory... My high praise goes to Elden and, especially, Bononno for producing this lovely book, which I am glad to have read."-Antipode"The text reads like a well-crafted set of research notes, constituting a preliminary step toward the concrete elaboration of ‘the urban’ as a historical mode of production. This volume would be useful both to those who labor in the Marxist tradition as well as to those generally interested in what Edward Soja calls the ‘spatial turn’ in critical social theory."-Marx & Philosophy

• ContentsForewordStuart EldenIntroductory NoteHenri LefebvreMarxist Thought and the City1. The Situation of the Working Class in England2. The City and the Division of Labor3. Critique of Political Economy4. Engels and Utopia5. Capital and Land OwnershipConclusionNotes