Against the Planetarization of the Metabolic Rift and of the Urban

Both the urban and the metabolic rift have been recognized as planetary phenomena with worldwide implications. Underlying their historical conjuncture is the way the two are rooted in basic contradictions of the capital system–including town–country, domination-appropriation, and exchange value–use value–rendering them mutually reinforcing and co-constitutive. Thus, the looming threat of what French Marxist Henri Lefebvre referred to as the “planetarization of the urban” also represents a planetarization of the metabolic rift. Rather than a negation of the urban, the project of autogestion suggests that metabolic restoration lies in the reappropriation of space through urban society. This raises challenges of substantive equality, substantive democracy, and openness to the future, which also serve as orienting principles rooted in the socialist project. Although transforming these into a radical project of transition represents a monumental challenge, its urgent necessity becomes increasingly apparent with the growing stakes of our contemporary social-ecological crisis.