DEBATE: WHO HAS, OR SHOULD HAVE, THE "RIGHT TO THE CITY"

NUART PLUS: Debate with Emma Arnold, Pedro Soares Neves and Peter Bengsten

Friday, 09th September 14.15-15.00
 

Henri Lefebvre’s "right to the city" concept provokes us to consider how we might remake the city with the goal of creating more just and ideal societies.In this series of short presentations, each speaker has 15 minutes to shed light on the question of who has, or should have, ‘the right to the city’.
 

Spatial justice: an alternative vision of the right to the city (Peter Bengtsen)
In most of the world, private property is sacrosant and protected by law. At the same time, much of what we perceive to be urban public space is in fact privately owned. This private ownership of the spaces we move through influences in a fundamental way our legal right to the city. In this presentation, I will discuss and relate to street art the critical legal idea of "spatial justice", which stands in opposition to property law and the right to permanently occupy space.
 
Desire line right to the city (Pedro Soares Neves)
Visual signs such as a desire line, a tag, or a self-made playground hint at the possibility for better usage of city resources. Keeping this knowledge exclusively within the cultural domain goes against the principles of the ‘right to the city’ charter. Through scientific research on Street Art & Urban Creativity (Urbancreativity.org), it is possible to communicate more effectively with planners.
 
Women’s right to the city (Emma Arnold)
Discussions on ‘right to the city’ frequently fail to recognise that not everyone has the same access to the city.  Women’s rights have varied through history and despite feminist strides, the city remains a highly gendered place. The proliferation of outdoor advertising may inadvertently lead to a sexualising of space , further impacting women’s already differentiated rights to the city.
 

Biographies
 

PEDRO SOARES-NEVES (PT)
Founder, Lisbon Street Art and Urban Creativity

Pedro Soares Neves is a researcher, designer and urbanist who has undertaken multidisciplinary academic training in Lisbon, Barcelona and Rome. He is the co-creator of the first
academic journal dedicated to graffiti and street art, ‘Street & Urban Creativity, International Research Topic’. He is also founder of the Portugese chapter of IAP2 (International Association for Public Participation) and APAURB (Portugese Urban Art Association). He is one of the pioneers of Portugese graffiti and a mentor to several international institutions about their approach to urban art.

PETER BENGTSEN (SE)
Art historian and sociologist, Department of Arts and Cultural Sciences, Lund University

Peter Bengtsen’s main area of interest is street art as an artistic and social phenomenon, which he has been writing about academically since 2006. In 2014, he published a book on the topic entitled "The Street Art World".

His research on street art has led to an interest in the ‘publicness’ of public space in general and spatial justice in particular. More recently, he has been working within the field of visual ecocriticism. In this research, Bengtsen investigates how themes like biocentrism, anthropocentrism and anthropomorphism are treated in visual art and how this may influence the relationship between human beings and the environment.

EMMA ARNOLD (CA)
Research Fellow, University of Oslo Department of Sociology and Human Geography

Emma Arnold is a dual Canadian and British citizen who has lived and studied in Canada, Greece, Hungary, Norway, and Sweden. She is a cultural geographer with a background in environmental geography, environmental impact assessment, and environmental policy. She has previously worked as a policy analyst developing environmental legislation and regulation for the Canadian government. She is currently a doctoral research fellow at the Department of Sociology and Human Geography at the University of Oslo, where her research focusses on environmental aesthetics, graffiti and street art, and urban space.

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