
What is Spatial Justice?
Spatial justice brings together social justice and space. Specifically, urban spatial justice focuses on urban city areas. How space is organized is a crucial dimension of human societies, reflecting social realities and (in)justices while also influencing social relations (Henri Lefebrve, 1968, 1972).
Therefore, to understand and attempt tackle social injustices, a close look at space and society is needed. Where space and society meet, the concept and practice of urban spatial justice is developed.
As a fundamental dimension of human societies, space is intrinsically embedded with social justice issues, realities, and conflict. Spatial justice as a concept can be a useful guiding tool to understand and reflect on solutions to social injustices that are embedded in the fusion between space and society.
Spatial Justice and Urban Planning
Spatial justice as a concept and practice is one often seen as ‘taken for granted’ and rarely questioned in urban planning, especially since the work of American radical geographers in the ’70’s and ’80’s (see for example David Harvey, 1973). It is often taken for granted as the end goal of many planning initiatives and projects, although this can be and is often publicly contested, as in the case of gentrification (or ‘revitalization’) efforts- which we see clearly as acts of spatial injustice committed against poor and/or multiply-marginalized populations as they are indirectly or forcibly evicted and displaced from their homes and communities as these are bought and sold like any other merchandise within neo-liberal economic context, with the sole goal of turning profit. This market logic is in direct conflict with the concept of shelter (and community) as a human necessity, no less a human right.
Similarly, spatial justice is can also be argued to include, or be in parallel with, concepts of environmental justice and equity. These include concerns of environmental sustainability, and the spatial overlap between racial discrimination, the spatial patterns this produces, and the coupling of these spaces with industrial pollution, socio-economic exclusion, and susceptibility to natural hazards.
Recent Debates: Two Currents of Thought and Practice
In the past few years, there has been a rising interest in the concept of spatial justice, and several key events and publications rooted in human and social sciences have emerged[1]. There also seems to be have been a clear split in perspectives surrounding social justice. Polarizing the debate, and informed by the work of several famous Justice philosophers (particularly John Rawls, and Iris Marion Young), there are two contrasting schools of thought.
One centers redistribution issues, while the other focuses on decision-making processes.
The set of approaches that centers concerns over spatial or socio-spatial distributions works with the aim to achieve an equal spatial (and geographical) distribution of the wants and needs in a society. These can include factors such as access to health care, education and job opportunities, as well as good air or soil quality, among others. The distribution of these elements becomes a particularly important concern in regions where the population is unable or has difficulty moving to a more ‘just’ location, spatially, due to numerous factors – such as discrimination, poverty, or political restrictions (such as apartheid pass laws). In the ‘Global North’, we are also seeing the trend of increasingly limited access to many spaces (such as the ‘fortress impulse’ that is the gated community), and public spaces (with the mass privatization or semi-privatization of public land and space). In the distributive justice school of thought, it is the access to these goods or social opportunities that sets the indicator for whether a situation is spatially just or not.
The second way spatial justice is often approached is with a focus on decision-making procedures. This approach opens up the possibility for analyses and understandings of representations of space(s), identities (territorial or otherwise), and social practices. For example, this approach would allow moving beyond a universalist approach in which all people(s) are treated as one and the same, thus erasing existing disparities. A focus on minority or marginalized populations or peoples in this case would allow for an exploration of their spatial practices, and also how these are experienced and managed by them and other actors. This might lead to revealing experiences and forms of discrimination or oppression that would have otherwise been by-passed.
In simple(r) terms, the first approach asks questions about spatial distributions because justice in this case is evaluated based on ‘results’ on the ground. The second approach asks questions about space representations, identities, and experiences because justice here is defined as a process.
Spatial Justice and Right to the City Montreal
In our work, Right to the City Montreal is in many ways quite rooted in the notion of urban spatial justice (and the working towards it) as a process, and one that values and needs to take into account the real, lived experiences and identities of the peoples with whom we are working in solidarity.
While we by no means have the capacity necessary to take on projects of spatial justice analyses at a large or ‘urban’ scale like planners, our belief in the ‘right to the city’ for all peoples is rooted in the goal of all people(s) being able to be empowered to autonomously shape themselves and their city through active participation and urban citizenship.
While practical, a universalist ‘results’-driven approach fails to take into account the spatial and social complexities constantly at work, and continually being (re)produced and (re)created in the urban environment, as in all environments. Because of this, our group’s approach to urban spatial justice is more in line with the set of process-based approaches. Although a documentation and analysis of existing distributions of good and opportunities is very important in its own right, and is a key step, these should be overlaid with the real social and spatial landscape and complexities of the identities, lives, and needs of peoples on the ground in order to be truly meaningful and just
Notes
[1]. These recent events and publications include: a conference on concept of spatial justice held at the University Paris-Ouest Nanterre, France. Justice Spatiale/Spatial justice (a scientific Journal released in 2009), and a book written by Edward Soja in 2010 – Seeking Spatial Justice.