Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Cities for people, not for profit: an introduction Neil Brenner, Peter Marcuse and Margit Mayer;
2. What is critical urban theory? Neil Brenner;
3. Whose right(s) to what city? Peter Marcuse;
4. Henri Lefebvre, the right to the city and the new metropolitan mainstream Christian Schmid;
5. The ‘right to the city’ in urban social movements Margit Mayer;
6. Space and revolution in theory and practice: eight theses Kanishka Goonewardena;
7. Critical development studies and the praxis of planning Katharine N. Rankin;
8. Assemblages, actor networks and the challenges of critical urban theory Neil Brenner, David J. Madden and David Wachsmuth;
9. 'Creative cities’ and the rise of the dealer class Stefan Krätke;
10. Critical theory and ‘gray space’: mobilization of the colonized Oren Yiftachel;
11. Missing Marcuse: on gentrification and displacement Tom Slater;
12. An actually existing just city? The fight for the right to the city in Amsterdam Justus Uitermark;
13. A critical approach to solving the housing problem Peter Marcuse;
14. Socialist cities, for people or for power? Bruno Flierl in conversation with Peter Marcuse;
15. Right to the city – from theory to alliance Jon Liss;
16. What is to be done, and who the hell is going to do it? David Harvey with David Wachsmuth;
Afterward by Peter Marcuse;
Index.

The worldwide financial crisis has sent shock-waves of accelerated economic restructuring, regulatory reorganization and sociopolitical conflict through cities around the world. It has also given new impetus to the struggles of urban social movements emphasizing the injustice, destructiveness and unsustainability of capitalist forms of urbanization. This book contributes analyses intended to be useful for efforts to roll back contemporary profit-based forms of urbanization, and to promote alternative, radically democratic and sustainable forms of urbanism.
The contributors provide cutting-edge analyses of contemporary urban restructuring, including the issues of neoliberalization, gentrification, colonization, "creative" cities, architecture and political power, sub-prime mortgage foreclosures and the ongoing struggles of "right to the city" movements. At the same time, the book explores the diverse interpretive frameworks – critical and otherwise – that are currently being used in academic discourse, in political struggles, and in everyday life to decipher contemporary urban transformations and contestations. The slogan, "cities for people, not for profit," sets into stark relief what the contributors view as a central political question involved in efforts, at once theoretical and practical, to address the global urban crises of our time.
Drawing upon European and North American scholarship in sociology, politics, geography, urban planning and urban design, the book provides useful insights and perspectives for citizens, activists and intellectuals interested in exploring alternatives to contemporary forms of capitalist urbanization.