This seminar addresses the relationship between urbanization and global economic, political, cultural, social, demographic, technological and ecological dynamics. It does so with an emphasis on the contested legacies of city planning, urban design, architecture and urban political activism, by drawing on historical studies of global cities as well as critical-theoretical perspectives on the ‘production of space’. While broaching the question what’s ‘production of space’ got to do with social justice, we explore—with reference to pioneering thinkers in the fields of planning, architecture and critical theory—such concepts as radical planning, the urban revolution and the right to the city.