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Quotation Archive

Harvey on Remaking the City

Harvey on Remaking the City: verified evidence, ethical stakes, objections, practical limits, policy context, and related urban ideas in a clear, sourced guide.

Quotation archive

The freedom to make and remake our cities and ourselves is ... one of the most precious ... human rights.

David Harvey · The Right to the City

Quote record

Author

David Harvey

Source

The Right to the City

Chapter / location

New Left Review 53 (2008), opening paragraph

Tradition

urban-ethics · city-life-and-urban-ethics · right-to-the-city-philosophy

Source information

From The Right to the City, New Left Review 53 (2008), opening paragraph.

Translation

English translation; consult the named source edition for the original wording.

Context

Read the contextual commentary in this archive entry.

Interpretation

Harvey on Remaking the City: verified evidence, ethical stakes, objections, practical limits, policy context, and related urban ideas in a clear, sourced guide.

Knowledge network

Related Archive Records

Historical Context

Harvey on Remaking the City presents a short excerpt by David Harvey from The Right to the City, located at New Left Review 53 (2008), opening paragraph. The wording is reproduced only in the verified form recorded above. Its date, document type, and surrounding argument matter: this is evidence of what the speaker or institution said, not proof that the urban aspiration described has been achieved.

Meaning

The excerpt's central idea is “the freedom to make and remake our cities and ourselves is ... one of the most precious ... human rights.” In the context of Harvey on Remaking the City, the wording directs attention to who can create, inhabit, access, or transform urban life. The interpretation should remain close to the quoted terms and should not silently convert a political vision, scholarly argument, or institutional target into a universal legal rule.

Philosophical Interpretation

Harvey on Remaking the City can be read through democratic participation, rights, capabilities, and spatial justice. The passage asks readers to connect city form with human agency and unequal power, while The Right to the City and New Urban Agenda supply an institutional comparison. Its philosophical value lies in framing a problem for judgment; the excerpt cannot replace evidence about present conditions.

Interpretive Limit

The controlling boundary for Harvey on Remaking the City is preserve ellipses; distinguish harvey's argument from treaty law. This qualification prevents the excerpt from being used as a free-floating slogan. Readers should consult the named work, preserve the edition or paragraph location, and distinguish interpretation from attribution before carrying the quotation into another debate.

Learning Path

Part of a Structured Collection

Knowledge Network

Archive references

Sources

3 scholarly sources

Source and quality checks completed

Quality check completed 2026-08-26

Based on 3 scholarly sourcesLast updated 2026-08-26