Urbanization and accumulation by dispossession in works of David Harvey. A frame work for urban analysis

Theorizing the city has been one of the main concerns of scholars throughout history. Like any other phenomenon, cities can only be studied and analyzed once we have developed a solid framework to define them and identified tools that help us dissect this complex phenomenon and deepen our knowledge of its components. Today, a major new paradigm in urban studies, advanced by scholars such as David Harvey, emphasizes the importance of analyzing capitalism, class conflict and the unequal distribution of resources when assessing urban life, spatial structure and change. According to Harvey, the origin of this paradigm is Marxian theory, which he considers the most powerful of all the explanatory frameworks through which the city can be studied (Harvey, 1985). He states explicitly that this theory has the potential to address matters as diverse as the formation of the built environment and architectural design, street culture and micro-politics, urban economics and politics, and the role of urbanization in the rich and complex historical geography of capitalism. This research is broadly based on Harvey's work; its methodology therefore consists of reading his books and articles, as well as interviews and lectures he has given on different occasions. The first chapter is an introduction that familiarizes the reader with Harvey and his work, briefly explains his importance and relevance to the field of planning, and offers a glimpse of his thought along with some brief criticism. The second chapter takes a descriptive approach: I reconstruct the city in Harvey's work and draw a picture of how he describes urbanism and its enduring embodiment, the city. The third chapter takes an evaluative approach, analyzing urbanism and the city according to the definitions given in the preceding chapter. Here I examine, first, whether David Harvey's concepts of the city and urbanism are applicable to present-day realities and, second, whether these concepts are consistent with his ideology and ethics. To this end, I use the concept of "accumulation by dispossession" as a lens to examine segregation and the emergence of racialized societies in urban contexts shaped by the trends discussed in the previous chapters. The fourth chapter is a brief conclusion that summarizes David Harvey's ideology and positions on urbanism. It outlines, first, the recurrent idea of spatial inequality in his work, with its causes and implications, and, second, how market-led development in current urban trends is shaping social space.