Common (Good)?

On Horizons for the Realization of the Right to the City in Latin America

Abstract

https://doi.org/10.1590/2179-8966/2025/88305

It has recently been suggested that the assumption of the city as a common good would grant operational validity to the right to the city (Fernandes, 2021), taking into account the persistent restricted and limited conception of the former (Canestraro y Jakubowicz, 2021) originating from its lack of concreteness and abstraction (Guillén Lanzarote, 2011). In this context, and focusing on the Latin American region, this article examines the conditions that would make such an implementation viable, investigating the temporalities and demands that are articulated, the actor networks that are configured, and the tensions surrounding the commodification and decommodification of the urbanization process (Pírez, 2016a). To this end, an analytical corpus is constructed by recovering the debate surrounding the right to the city and the commons, seeking possible intersections between the two, with a view to addressing the questions raised. The conclusion is that the State assumes a central role in the debate, either as a mediator between citizens and the market or as part of a new political rationality. It is around this distinction that the main divergences between the two perspectives operate.