The Archaeology of Urban Conflict: From Plato to Henri Lefebvre

Abstract

The article provides an analysis of the Western tradition related to the problem of conflict in the urban context. It analyzes problems of urban justice based on the topization associated with Plato's political philosophy. The article substantiates the naturalness of the state of war and conflict in the urban environment. The city is shown as a primary political field, a primordial political locus, within which civil conflict is embedded. According to Plato, conflict permeates not only poleis, but also individuals, households and villages. The cure for this all-encompassing war is the correct organization of the conflicting parts based on justice, since it represents a state of realized universal good based on the ideal of integrity. As N. Loraux's historical and anthropological research has shown, the oath and the establishment of a citywide fest serve as auxiliary cultural mechanisms for overcoming urban conflict. The intermediate link of the chain of ideas is the political philosophy of Thomas Hobbes, in which the political is taken out of the city, but the city continues to be potentially conflictual. Henry Lefebvre is shown as an unobvious heir of Plato in urban theory. The concept of the right to the city, which is still relevant today, turns out to be closely related to political aesthetics. Residents of the city are opposed to the mobile elite, who do not actually inhabit the city, but have full rights to it. The city is understood as an oevre, while genuine urban life can be created only by the practical collective effort of citizens and is expressed in the form of a Fest, an absolute event that excludes the coercion of capitalist logic. Contemporary academic discussions are characterized by tension between discursive (S. Feinstein) and practical (D. Harvey) understandings of justice in the city.