Roberto Rocco – författare

The Routledge Handbook on Informal Urbanization investigates the mutual relationship between the struggle for political inclusion and processes of informal urbanization in different socio-political and cultural settings.It seeks a middle ground between two opposing perspectives on the political meaning of urban informality. The first, the ‘emancipatory perspective’, frames urban informality as a practice that fosters autonomy, entrepreneurship and social mobility. The other perspective, more critical, sees informality predominantly as a result of political exclusion, inequality, and poverty. Do we see urban informality as a fertile breeding ground for bottom-up democracy and more political participation? Or is urban informality indeed merely the result of a democratic deficit caused by governing autocratic elites and ineffective bureaucracies?This book displays a wide variety of political practices and narratives around these positions based on narratives conceived upon specific case cities. It investigates how processes of urbanization are politicized in countries in the Global South and in transition economies.The handbook explores 24 cities in the Global South, as well as examples from Eastern Europe and East Asia, with contributions written by a global group of scholars familiar with the cases (often local scholars working in the cities analyzed) who offer unique insight on how informal urbanization can be interpreted in different contexts. These contributions engage the extreme urban environments under scrutiny which are likely to be the new laboratories of 21st-century democracy. It is vital reading for scholars, practitioners, and activists engaged in informal urbanization.

Spatial Justice: The Basics offers a concise and accessible introduction to spatial justice as both a theoretical framework and a practical agenda for urban transformation. It examines how urban space is produced, contested, and governed, and how it is implicated in broader dynamics of inequality, recognition, and participation. Drawing on key thinkers such as Henri Lefebvre, Nancy Fraser, Iris Marion Young, Edward Soja, and Susan Fainstein, the book articulates spatial justice through its distributive, procedural, and recognitional dimensions, while also tracing its intellectual genealogy across critical theory, planning thought, and Southern urbanism.The book centres spatial planning as a normative, political, and ethical practice capable of fostering solidarity, democratising decision-making, and addressing structural injustices. Real-world examples from Indonesia, Colombia, Brazil, the US, and more illustrate how spatial justice is negotiated in practice, while discussions of neoliberal governance, democratic backsliding, and epistemic justice ground the analysis in urgent global challenges.Designed for upper-level undergraduates, postgraduates, and early-career professionals in planning, geography, architecture, and related fields, the book includes a detailed glossary of key terms, visual diagrams, and analytical tables to support critical engagement and classroom use.

Spatial Justice: The Basics offers a concise and accessible introduction to spatial justice as both a theoretical framework and a practical agenda for urban transformation. It examines how urban space is produced, contested, and governed, and how it is implicated in broader dynamics of inequality, recognition, and participation. Drawing on key thinkers such as Henri Lefebvre, Nancy Fraser, Iris Marion Young, Edward Soja, and Susan Fainstein, the book articulates spatial justice through its distributive, procedural, and recognitional dimensions, while also tracing its intellectual genealogy across critical theory, planning thought, and Southern urbanism.The book centres spatial planning as a normative, political, and ethical practice capable of fostering solidarity, democratising decision-making, and addressing structural injustices. Real-world examples from Indonesia, Colombia, Brazil, the US, and more illustrate how spatial justice is negotiated in practice, while discussions of neoliberal governance, democratic backsliding, and epistemic justice ground the analysis in urgent global challenges.Designed for upper-level undergraduates, postgraduates, and early-career professionals in planning, geography, architecture, and related fields, the book includes a detailed glossary of key terms, visual diagrams, and analytical tables to support critical engagement and classroom use.

The Routledge Handbook on Informal Urbanization investigates the mutual relationship between the struggle for political inclusion and processes of informal urbanization in different socio-political and cultural settings.It seeks a middle ground between two opposing perspectives on the political meaning of urban informality. The first, the ‘emancipatory perspective’, frames urban informality as a practice that fosters autonomy, entrepreneurship and social mobility. The other perspective, more critical, sees informality predominantly as a result of political exclusion, inequality, and poverty. Do we see urban informality as a fertile breeding ground for bottom-up democracy and more political participation? Or is urban informality indeed merely the result of a democratic deficit caused by governing autocratic elites and ineffective bureaucracies?This book displays a wide variety of political practices and narratives around these positions based on narratives conceived upon specific case cities. It investigates how processes of urbanization are politicized in countries in the Global South and in transition economies.The handbook explores 24 cities in the Global South, as well as examples from Eastern Europe and East Asia, with contributions written by a global group of scholars familiar with the cases (often local scholars working in the cities analyzed) who offer unique insight on how informal urbanization can be interpreted in different contexts. These contributions engage the extreme urban environments under scrutiny which are likely to be the new laboratories of 21st-century democracy. It is vital reading for scholars, practitioners, and activists engaged in informal urbanization.

This book investigates insurgent planning practices and their potential for alternative forms of civic engagement and democracy-building. It explores how planners can challenge technocratic planning by incorporating notions of participation, inclusion, trans-sectionality and the right to the city into their daily practices. Each chapter delves into those daily practices to answer: What does insurgent planning practice look like in practice? How are radical planners coping with traditional, technocratic planning as practised in most places around the world? And what do they do to advance an agenda of democratisation and the right to the city, counteracting neoliberal forms of governance?Chapters draw on conversations with planners in several cities around the world, cataloguing insurgent experiences that challenge the status quo of contemporary market-based, exclusionary city-making. Throughout, cross-cutting issues such as gender, race and class are explored to consider ways in which insurgent planners bring diversity into planning.