207 Housing and the Right to the City: introduction to the Special Issue International Journal of Housing Policy 14(3): 207-213. Manuel B. Aalbers 1 & Kenneth Gibb 2 Guest editors Abstract In recent years responses to neoliberal urbanism and social injustice have been framed in terms of “The Right to the City”, both by academics and social movements. This special issue presents case studies of housing struggles from around the globe that are framed within a right to the city perspective. In this introduction to the special issue we first present a short synopsis of the idea of a right to the city, as put forward by Henri Lefebvre; second, briefly discuss earlier work that has used a right to the city lens to look at housing; and third, provide an overview of the papers that make up this special issue. Keywords: Lefebvre, Henri; Right to the City; housing; private property; social exclusion; social movements Introduction In recent years responses to neoliberal urbanism and social injustice have been framed in terms of “The Right to the City”, both by academics and social movements. Academics and groups associated with this movement seek to increase social justice (e.g. Young, 1990), encourage processes of democratization, and promote empowerment. As always, housing plays a central role in these struggles, although it has only received significant attention in the academic debate in the past 5 to 10 years. This special issue presents case studies of housing struggles from around the globe that are framed within a right to the city perspective. The theme and the papers gathered here arise from a series of special sessions on ‘Housing and the Right to the City’ held at the International Sociological Association World Congress in Buenos Aries Argentina in August 2012. The meeting was convened by two ISA research committees (21 and 43). In this introduction to the special issue we first present a short synopsis of the idea of a right to the city, as put forward by Henri Lefebvre; second, the introduction briefly discusses earlier work that has used a right to the city lens to look at housing; and third, we provide an overview of the papers that make up this special issue. 1 Department of Geography, KU Leuven/University of Leuven, Belgium. Corresponding author: manuel.aalbers@ees.kuleuven. 2 Policy Scotland & Urban Studies, University of Glasgow, UK.