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Urban Revolt
State Power and the Rise of People's Movements in the Global South
The urban poor and working class now make up the majority of the world’s population and this segment is growing dramatically as the global population expands to 10 billion by mid-century. Much of the population growth results from the displacement of rural peasants to the urban cores, resulting in the vast expansion of mega-cities with 10 to 20 million people in the global South. The proliferation of informal settlements and slums particularly in the global south have created the conditions in which urban areas have become the principal sites of social upheaval as people seek to improve their living conditions. Drawing from case studies in Africa, Latin America, and Asia, the various chapters in this book map and analyze the ways in which the majority of the world exists and struggles in the contemporary urban context.

Advancing beyond a liberal perspective, the book unpacks the ways in which Urban Social Movements (USMs) in the global south have challenged or transformed how the city is organized and the possibilities that they have created for a revolutionary alternative to the capitalist hegemonic framework.
Reviews
  • "A superb addition to the literature on the contemporary global crisis and its micro manifestations."
    —Patrick Bond, BRICS: An Anticapitalist Critique

    "What emerges from this collection is a complex picture of resistance, which nevertheless provides nuanced hope for a universalist project of social transformation.... The result is often a refreshing and accessible journey into urban revolts that the reader may have less familiarity."
    —Leo Zeilig, Struggles Today: Social Movements Since Independence

    “Read this to be inspired by stories of city-based resistance in some of the most difficult conditions possible.” –Socialist Review

  • "A superb addition to the literature on the contemporary global crisis and its micro manifestations."
    —Patrick Bond, BRICS: An Anticapitalist Critique

    "What emerges from this collection is a complex picture of resistance, which nevertheless provides nuanced hope for a universalist project of social transformation.... The result is often a refreshing and accessible journey into urban revolts that the reader may have less familiarity."
    —Leo Zeilig, Struggles Today: Social Movements Since Independence

Other books edited by Immanuel Ness, Trevor Ngwane, et al.