The more-than-human right to the city: A multispecies reevaluation

The right to the city theory was born from a desire to challenge power and decision-making processes in the urban space that privilege certain groups over others. Growing neoliberalist ideals have threatened this concept by favoring economic exclusivity over residents' needs, but as the world becomes more densely urban, questions of rights and access for both human and nonhuman residents reappear. Using real-world examples, I answer the questions posed by modern right to the city theorists: (1) whose right, (2) what right, and (3) which city? In the process, I show how similar barriers faced by othered human and nonhuman urban residents lend themselves to developing a multispecies extension of the theory. This extension aims to open the rights to: access the urban space, to self-identify one's needs, and to have active consideration in social and political decision-making processes for the urban residents who currently lack them, human and nonhuman alike.