DEMOCRATIC CITY AND THE RIGHT TO THE CITY:

LEFEBVRE AND INCLUSIVE-SUSTAINABLE URBAN GOVERNANCE IN SDG-11

Abstract

Social inclusion in the urban context is a global policy aligned with UN SDG 11, which aims to make cities inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. In Brazil, the City Statute (Law 10.257/2001) provides instruments for public participation—such as councils, public hearings, and citizen-led legislative initiatives—though its effectiveness still faces challenges, including conflicting interests and low social engagement. Henri Lefebvre’s (1968) work on the "right to the city" underpins this discussion, framing the city as a collective good and a space for social transformation, indirectly influencing agendas like SDG 11. This article examines how Targets 11.3 (participatory urban planning) and 11.7 (access to safe public spaces) engage with Lefebvrian principles, employing a qualitative methodology based on bibliographic review and UN policy documents. The central objective is to analyze the extent to which the UN’s inclusive urbanization framework incorporates Lefebvre’s radical critiques, highlighting contradictions between theory and practice in Brazilian urban policies. To achieve this, the study adopts a theoretical-qualitative approach, grounded in a review of key concepts from Lefebvre’s works and SDG 11’s indicators and targets. We conclude that, although SDG-11 incorporates values aligned with the right to the city, its realization requires overcoming technocratic grammar and pursuing truly inclusive urbanization, which will only emerge when the targets are reinterpreted as tools for struggle, not just for management.