Julian Roche, Marxism and Real Estate: Taking Lefebvre Seriously – Routledge, September 2023

Intriguing, but a truly ridiculous price of £140!

This book straddles two worlds and attempts to bring them together: that of Lefebvre’s Marxism on the one hand, and that of real estate development on the other. Lefebvre has now become a household name amongst many contemporary Marxists, especially those with an interest in urban planning and certain quarters of the architectural profession, however his work is far less well known by real estate professionals, whether investors, developers, brokers or indeed policymakers. 

Marxism and Real Estate: Taking Lefebvre Seriously has both a large scope and a very bold aim – to use an explication and analysis of the work of Henri Lefebvre not only to present a critique of development, but on the contrary to draw these two worlds together. It therefore aims first, to present the arguments of this increasingly well-known French Marxist philosopher, sociologist, and pioneer of urban studies. Second, to situate contemporary real estate development in the light of Lefebvre’s work. And third, to analyse the potential application of Lefebvre’s work to each of the major components of contemporary real estate, to use Lefebvre’s work in order to recommend practical action for developers, working alongside planners and architects, to influence the future of global real estate.

As well as its direction at developers themselves, this book should be of interest to economists, real estate researchers and professionals, planners, urban studies scholars and, of course, to those interested in the application of Lefebvre’s work to real estate.