Spatial justice links
social justice
Social justice is justice in relation to the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society where individuals' rights are recognized and protected. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has of ...
to
space
Space is a three-dimensional continuum containing positions and directions. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions. Modern physicists usually consider it, with time, to be part of a boundless ...
, most notably in the works of geographers
David Harvey and
Edward W. Soja. The field analyzes the impact of
regional planning
Regional planning deals with the efficient placement of land-use activities, infrastructure, and settlement growth across a larger area of land than an individual city or town. Regional planning is related to urban planning as it relates land ...
and
urban planning
Urban planning (also called city planning in some contexts) is the process of developing and designing land use and the built environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas, such as transportatio ...
decisions. It is promoted by the scholarly tradition of
critical geography, which arose in the 1970s.
Between issues of redistribution and decision-making processes
Building on the work of several famous Justice philosophers (
John Rawls
John Bordley Rawls (; February 21, 1921 – November 24, 2002) was an American moral philosophy, moral, legal philosophy, legal and Political philosophy, political philosopher in the Modern liberalism in the United States, modern liberal tradit ...
, 1971;
Iris Marion Young
Iris Marion Young (2 January 1949 – 1 August 2006) was an American political theorist and socialist feminist who focused on the nature of justice and social difference. She served as Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago an ...
, 1990, 2000), two contrasting approaches of justice have polarized the debate: one focuses on redistribution issues, the other concentrates on decision-making processes.
A first set of approaches consists in asking questions about spatial or socio-spatial distributions and working to achieve an equal geographical distribution of society's wants and needs, such as
job opportunities,
access to health care,
good air quality, et cetera. This is of particular concern in regions where the population has difficulty moving to a more spatially just location due to poverty, discrimination, or political restrictions (such as apartheid
pass laws
In South Africa under apartheid, and South West Africa (now Namibia), pass laws served as an internal passport system designed to racially segregate the population, restrict movement of individuals, and allocate low-wage migrant labor. Also ...
). Even in free, developed nations, access to many places are limited. Geographer
Don Mitchell points to the mass
privatization
Privatization (rendered privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation w ...
of once-public land as a common example of spatial injustice. In this distributive justice perspective, the access to material and immaterial goods, or to social positions indicates whether the situation is fair or not. At the scale of urban space, questions of accessibility,
walkability
In urban planning, walkability is the accessibility of amenities within a reasonable walking distance. It is based on the idea that urban spaces should be more than just transport corridors designed for maximum vehicle throughput. Instead, it s ...
and transport equity can also be seen as matters of distribution of spatial resources.
Another way of tackling the concept of spatial justice is to focus on decision-making procedures: this approach also raises issues of representations of space, of territorial or other identities and of social practices. For instance, focusing on minorities allows to explore their spatial practices but also to investigate how these are experienced and managed by various agents: this may lead to reveal forms of
oppression
Oppression is malicious or unjust treatment of, or exercise of power over, a group of individuals, often in the form of governmental authority. Oppression may be overt or covert, depending on how it is practiced.
No universally accepted model ...
or
discrimination
Discrimination is the process of making unfair or prejudicial distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong, such as race, gender, age, class, religion, or sex ...
that a universalist approach might disregard otherwise. Architect and urbanist
Liz Ogbu argues, for instance, that successful spatial justice planning requires designers to "engage people who don’t have a seat at the table and think about them as co-designers in the process".
Environmental justice
Environmental justice
Environmental justice is a social movement that addresses injustice that occurs when poor or marginalized communities are harmed by hazardous waste, resource extraction, and other land uses from which they do not benefit. The movement has gene ...
is a related concept, arising in the 1970s in North American cities. It criticizes the concentration of pollution and natural hazards disproportionately in minority neighborhoods, which is seen by proponents as a form of
racial discrimination
Racial discrimination is any discrimination against any individual on the basis of their Race (human categorization), race, ancestry, ethnicity, ethnic or national origin, and/or Human skin color, skin color and Hair, hair texture. Individuals ...
.
See also
*
Hermann Knoflacher
References
Bibliography
BRAWLEY Lisa, «The Practice of Spatial Justice in Crisis», ''justice spatiale - spatial justice'', n° 01, september 2009BRET Bernard, «Rawlsian universalism confronted with the diversity of reality», ''justice spatiale - spatial justice'', n° 01, september 2009*Coll., « Justice spatiale », ''
Annales de Géographie'', n°665–666, jan–avril 2009.
*Coll., "Spatial Justice", ''Critical Planning'', Volume 14 Summer 2007.
DIKEÇ Mustafa, «Space, politics and (in)justice», ''justice spatiale - spatial justice'', n° 01, september 2009FAINSTEIN Susan S., «Spatial Justice and Planning», ''justice spatiale - spatial justice'', n° 01, september 2009* FIEDLER, Johannes; HUMANN, Melanie and KÖLKE, Manuela (2012): "Radical Standard for the Implementation of Spatial Justice in Urban Planning and Design"; published by the Center for Gender Studies of TU Braunschweig
*HARVEY David, 1973, ''Social Justice and the City'', London, Edward Arnold.
*HARVEY David, 1992, "Social justice, Postmodernism and the City", ''International Journal of Urban and Regional Research'', 16, 4, pp. 588–601.
*LEFEBVRE Henri, 1968, ''Le Droit à la ville'', Paris, Anthropos.
*LEFEBVRE Henri, 1972, ''Espace et politique'', Paris, Anthropos.
MARCUSE Peter, «Spatial Justice: Derivative but Causal of Social Injustice», ''justice spatiale - spatial justice'', n° 01, september 2009*PIRIE Gordon, 1983, "On Spatial Justice", ''Environment and planning'', A 15, pp. 465–473.
*RAWLS John, 1971, ''A Theory of Justice'', Cambridge, Harvard University Press.
*REYNAUD Alain, 1981, ''Société, espace et justice'', Paris, PUF.
*SMITH D. M., 1994, ''Geography and Social Justice'', Oxford, Blackwell.
SOJA Edward W., «The city and spatial justice», ''justice spatiale - spatial justice'', n° 01, september 2009*SOJA Edward W., 2000, ''Postmetropolis, Critical Studies of Cities and Regions'', Oxford, Blackwell.
*SOJA Edward W., 2010, ''Seeking Spatial Justice'', Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press.
*YOUNG Iris Marion, 1990, ''Justice and the Politics of Difference'', Princeton, Princeton University Press.
*YOUNG Iris Marion, 2000, ''Inclusion and Democracy'', Oxford, Oxford University Press.
External links
What Makes Justice Spatial? What Makes Spaces Just? / Three Interviews on the Concept of Spatial Justice *
ttps://www.jssj.org/ ''justice spatiale - spatial justice'', a new journal, published in English and in French, by the University of Paris-Ouest Nanterre, France br>
Spatial Justice Test for the US using race and income data
{{Types of justice
Justice
Political philosophy
Human sciences
Urban planning
Geography
Social justice