The more-than-human right to the city: A multispecies reevaluation

ABSTRACT

The right to the city theory was born from a desire to challenge power and decision-making processes in the urban space that privilege certain groups over others. Growing neoliberalist ideals have threatened this concept by favoring economic exclusivity over residents’ needs, but as the world becomes more densely urban, questions of rights and access for both human and nonhuman residents reappear. Using real-world examples, I answer the questions posed by modern right to the city theorists: (1) whose right, (2) what right, and (3) which city? In the process, I show how similar barriers faced by othered human and nonhuman urban residents lend themselves to developing a multispecies extension of the theory. This extension aims to open the rights to: access the urban space, to self-identify one’s needs, and to have active consideration in social and political decision-making processes for the urban residents who currently lack them, human and nonhuman alike.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Dr. Laura Reese for always supporting my interest in urban human-animal relations, for pushing me to put my thoughts about the right to the city down on paper, and for reading and editing the first draft of this paper. I would also like to thank the two anonymous JUA reviewers for their thoughtful critiques and suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. This phrasing is a nod to waste as matter out of place, an idea first theorized by Mary Douglas in Purity and Danger (1966/1984).

2. A United States civil rights organization with a focus on securing rights for nonhuman animals; https://www.nonhumanrights.org/.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Marie Carmen Shingne

Marie Carmen Shingne is a doctoral candidate in the Sociology Department at Michigan State University with specializations in animal studies and global urban studies. Her dissertation research is focused on the experiences of India’s urban slum residents and street dogs and what these tell us about access, space, power, and the future of cities. Using multispecies ethnography, her research asks: how is the urban space currently shared and negotiated by different urban human and nonhuman residents, in what ways are the human and nonhuman residents impacted by these negotiations, and what does an inclusive city look like according to various stakeholders?