Lefebvre's Political Proposal

In “New Axioms for Reading the Landscape: Paying Attention to Political Economy and Social Justice,” Don Mitchell incorporates old ideas from Peirce F. Lewis’s original “Axioms for Reading the Landscape.” At the same time, Mitchell includes new ideas into his axioms. In Axiom 1, he explains that “the landscape is not produced through ‘our unwitting autobiography’ (as Lewis describes it), but as an act of (social, not individual) will” (2007, 34). He also stresses the idea that landscape should be produced as a commodity. In contrast, Neil Smith explains the main causes behind gentrification. Smith explains how gentrification happens through a process which he calls “rent gap” (1979, 545). In gentrification, the landscape is a commodity because it loses and gains monetary value through disinvestment and investment.

The concept of property has long been one of the most crucial aspects for the U.S. citizens, as it is a major part of the Constitutional, and, therefore, human rights. Although the perception and understanding of “property” have been considerably changed, especially in terms of political and philosophical vision, it still has a particular meaning for the Americans. In general, the idea of property is the question of the political thought and conceptualized thinking common for the United States. In most cases, its transformations are connected to the introduction of capitalism and related governmental decision in politics. Therefore, as any other topic, the value of property has undergone harsh debates. In particular, such important figures as James Fenimore Cooper, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Walt Whitman have developed a fundamental scope of analyses with regard to the property rights in America.

Well known in cities at the time were the City Beautiful movement and the city practical, however, social issues were merely pushed to the side. Wirka (1996) explains that “both are undoubtedly important movements in the history of planning” (p. 57), however, she goes on

Every country has its own agenda for its people and purpose for it’s military. Looking at the world nations, France is one of the most advanced nations that are currently an ally to the United States (US). Looking at the political, economic, and military situation of France can best describe the type of ideals and direction of focus the society has and will continue to have over the next few years or more.

An essential need of the city and urban life, for bringing people together and seeing architecture as a social form. (147-148 writing on cities)

Jacques Benigne Boussuet was born September 7th, 1627, in Dijon France. He died in 1704, however his ideas did not. Bossuet wrote a book named, “The Principles of Politics derived from the scripture” which summarizes the idea of a monarchy based upon The Word of the Most High. Bossuet debates that a human man does not seat the throne or become king, but the true king is God. Bossuet writes in his Political Treatise, “Consequently, as we have seen, the royal throne is not the throne of a man, but the throne of God himself.”(Jacques Benigne Boussuet) Furthermore, Bossuet explains that the a king gains his power through God and whoever goes against the way of the king, goes against the way of God. There is no one to change the thinking of God, or to suggest new changes in His arrangement. Therefore, if the king derives his power from God, the one who is Most High and does not have a wavered thought, neither should the king.

Cities are generators of economic life and source of changes in the world. Thereby, Jane Jacobs in her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities puts into relief the role of cities on the social and economic levels, while denouncing the disastrous consequences of urban renewal programs. To that extent, in chapters 2 and 3, she discusses "The Uses of Sidewalks”, arguing that over all people need safety and trust in their city. Therefore, first she claims the necessity of keeping streets and sidewalks safe because they are the “vital organs” of cities (29). Secondly, she argues that the functioning of cities should be organized in order to foster human interaction in which “casual public

Gentrification has been a controversial issue both in urban planning and politics primarily due to the displacement of poor people by the rich folks (Shaw & Hagemans, 2015). Many individuals have viewed gentrification as an illegal act that should be avoided at all costs. On the other hand, another group of people believe that gentrification is the way forward to promoting growth and development. With such contrasting ideas, this paper is going to take a look at gentrification from a positive and negative perspective, its effects, and how it can be prevented or contained. Apart from this, the paper will also address the following questions.

belongs in the city that the ideal can be achieved. What this means to politics in the

As a result of a booming development of the nineteenth century city, “progressive” architects of the time started to deliberate and conceive opinions to create long term solutions. Known for his radical cultural manifestos, Le Corbusier is one of the architects that epitomizes the change in ideal of the Machine Age. He introduced ideas of living in completely analogous, planned, designed, and then built, cities. Le Corbusier 's proposition for the City of Tomorrow had in its roots the intention of creating a series of fundamental principles that would become the skeleton of any modern city plan. However, considerations that were not applied during that period of time, are the cause of its unsuccessful development.

The process of people moving into cities, which is called urbanisation, was happening around the world in past decades. It causes cities to have more labourers and resources than before. This makes a big contribution to the social development of cities. Thanks to these social developments, public services are becoming better in these areas. Citizens can enjoy a better life by access these public services such as better medical care, more education resources and well-built transport. It means an equitable society can be created. An equitable society means citizens can have more opportunities to access social resources and to live a better life. This essay will argue that

[1] Explained by this exemplifies that a city should have a foundation for it to grow off of. I do believe this will also be the doing of the citizens that help plan at meetings with communities, yet a good foundation is what will lead to a “good city”. Furthermore, with the influence of citizens, a good city will develop from nothing and will have a sense of cultural background from the past of citizens who live there currently.

Castells’s earlier writings were much focused towards the urban studies and his writings addressed many challenges, issues and the problems in the urban studies. His writings challenged the present existing orthodoxies in the society by developing many arguments and intense interest. And later on many emerging European theorists started to propound their own agendas for studying the urban.

In this book Lynch defines that performance of the city can be measured by reference to its spatial form. But the quality of a place is depends upon combined effect of place and the society which occupies that place. Here Lynch sets up new dimensions for performance in his own criteria. Author also expresses his approach on size of the city, conservation and growth, planning practices and utopian models. The dimensions which are demonstrated in this book may not be fully perfect but of course they combine all social values as well as physical values. Lynch believed that these described dimensions must cover all features of all forms of the settlements and all these dimensions should be usable where values are different.

Montesquieu: A French political philosopher who advocated the separation of executive and legislative and judicial powers (vocabulary.com). Although it challenged the church’s rulings, Montesquieu had many philosophies on how the government should work (britannica.com). Montesquieu had a great childhood, nice jobs to start off his philosopher career, and wrote an amazing book with a lot of ideas that helped make the world what it is today. Thanks to Montesquieu many things in the United States are the way they are, including the Constitution (Johnson).