Introduction to Henri Lefebvre's 'Dissolving city,planetary metamorphosis'

摘要

Henri Lefebvre published this short, enigmatic essay in Le Monde diplomatique in 1989, two years before his death, presumably having written it at his family home in Navarrenx. At the time he was working with his circle of younger collaborators in the Groupe de Navarrenx on the volume subsequently published as Du control de citoyennete (Lefebvre and Groupe de Navarrenx, 1990). Although "Dissolving city, planetary metamorphosis" is brief and intended for a broad readership, it is a rich document, both as a retrospective on Lefebvre's urban thought and as an intellectual and political reference point for contemporary debates on planetary urbanization. The essay was discussed at length in a provocative recent article by Andy Merrifield (2011); it likewise serves a framing role in a newly published volume on planetary urbanization (Brenner, 2013). Within our research group on urban theory, a small team translated the piece for internal circulation and discussion; we have now obtained permission from the French copyright holder to publish the translated text here. We are grateful to Stuart Elden for supporting this project and for offering us a venue for the release of this brief but suggestive text, which is among Lefebvre's final publications.