“The right to the city is far more than the individual liberty to access urban resources: it is a right to change ourselves by changing the city”, David Harvey

The agenda for the right to the city unquestionably requires a broad exercise of citizenship for all its purposes to be fulfilled. Definitely, today’s cities need citizens committed to the rest of rights and obligations, otherwise there are no possibilities for the real effectiveness of normative expectations. Citizenship is also associated with the idea of political participation, inherent to any consolidated democracy, whereby each member of civil society actively engages in collective decisions. When these decisions affect cities as a whole, the need for rights and obligations to be exercised responsibly is magnified.

This is where the concept of social responsibility comes into play, understood as a contribution of individuals, groups, and governments to the improvement of society, the economy, and the environment. Social responsibility must be voluntary, active, determined, and convincing, without being assumed as a bargaining chip to achieve personal or group interests.

In the Mexican case, the Constitution states in Article 25 that national development will be achieved, with social responsibility, by the public sector, the social sector, and the private sector. It also adds that there can be no impairment of other forms of economic activity that contribute to the development of the nation. This is, then, the constitutional basis for social responsibility, clear evidence that it is an obligation even from a legal standpoint and not just from a political, cultural, moral, or social perspective.

21st-century cities require extensive social responsibility to become safe, conducive, and suitable environments for people to fulfill their life projects. It is clear that each individual must be socially responsible for their actions, as this is a task that cannot be exclusively assigned to the government. The proper functioning of cities, in this sense, as well as the materialization of human rights and public freedoms of individuals, is directly related to social responsibility and the need for everyone to contribute to the public space and take ownership of it with full awareness.

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