Peter Marcuse
1928–2022
American planner and lawyer whose whole body of work turns on one question: who is planning for.
Marcuse worked all his life on the border between law and urbanism, and held that planning is never technical: every plan distributes, and every distribution has winners. His distinction between the exclusion of the poor and the «walling in» of the rich remains one of the most useful tools for reading a plan.
Against an urbanism justified by competitiveness or attracting investment, he defended a criterion that is simple to apply: a city is just when the benefit goes to those who need it most, not to those who can best pay for it.
On Peter Marcuse in this archive
- Urban economy
Peter Marcuse: Social Justice and Urbanism in Neoliberal Context
Peter Marcuse, an American architect and urbanist, is one of the most influential voices in debates on social…
Peter Marcuse 3 min read - Housing
Housing Challenges in Contemporary Cities
Housing policy has been a central theme in the analysis of urban inequalities, particularly in contemporary cities,…
Raquel Rolnik 3 min read - Public space
The Right to the City: A Struggle for Inclusion and Urban Justice
The concept of the “right to the city” was first proposed by Henri Lefebvre in 1968 and has since become a…
Henri Lefebvre 2 min read - Housing
Affordable Housing Challenges in Modern Cities
Access to **affordable housing** has become one of the greatest urban challenges in a context of growing inequality…
Raquel Rolnik 3 min read - Housing
Social Housing and Rent Regulation: Keys to Urban Affordability
Social housing and rent regulation are two key mechanisms in public policy aimed at ensuring affordability and…
Raquel Rolnik 2 min read
