URBAN REVOLT

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.

Trevor Ngwane is a scholar activist who has over the years devoted as much time to academic work as to community and political activism. He studied at the University of Fort Hare during the apartheid days for four years and did not graduate due to various “student disturbances”. He obtained his BA (Sociology and Psychology) degree through the University of South Africa and his BA Honours (Sociology) at the University of the Witwatersrand and PhD at the University of Johannesburg. Ngwane is currently active in the Socialist Group, Democratic Left Front and United Front, organisations that seek a pro-working class pro-poor future for South Africa and the world.
Immanuel Ness, PhD, is professor of political science at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York.
Luke Sinwell, Witwatersrand University, Johannesburg, South Africa, PhD, is currently a Senior Researcher with the South African Research Chair in Social Change, University of Johannesburg.