Caroline Newton on "Just Space"

10/24/22 • 28 min

This session gives a definition of spatial justice and explores the notion of the commons as a tool to understand distributive, procedural, and intergenerational justice. Social Justice is undoubtedly one of the greatest challenges of our times, as rampant inequality erodes the fabric of our societies everywhere, undermining trust in governments, leading to violence and extremism and eating at the very core of democracy. Growing inequality, socio-spatial fragmentation and lack of access to public goods are threats to the sustainability of our cities, especially when we consider sustainability in its three fundamental dimensions (social, economic and environmental). But when discussing how social justice takes place in urban spaces, we use the term SPATIAL JUSTICE, because it allows us to focus on the spatial dimension of the distribution of the burdens and benefits of urban development, and on the manner this distribution is managed. This management happens through formal institutions, such as planning systems, but also through informal institutions and practices, such as informal agreements and cultural attitudes towards urban space. Spatial Justice is a relatively new concept that focuses on mainly two ‘types’ of justice: distributive justice and procedural justice. On one hand, distributive justice is sought through the creation, fair allocation of and access to public goods, resources, and services throughout the city.

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Mariana Fix on "Commodification & Financialization of the City"

At this episode we have Professor Mariana Fix from the School of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of Sao Paulo. Mariana talks to us about the "Commodification & Financialization of the City". Mariana Fix is the author of the books “Partners in Exclusion” (Parceiros da exclusão) and “São Paulo, Global City” (São Paulo, Cidade Global), both published in Brazil. She holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Campinas, a master’s degree in Sociology from the University of São Paulo and she is also an architect. She was IIAS Re-Theorizing Housing as Architecture Research Fellow and was a visiting research scholar at CUNY’s Graduate Centre as an Urban Studies Foundation fellow. She is a member of the Housing and Human Settlements Laboratory at FAU-USP, and has been working with Right to the City movements for several years.

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"Race & Space: Issues of race and class in urban development" with Suraj Yengde

Today we have with us Suraj Yengde speaking to us from the United States. Suraj is a Shorenstein Centre inaugural post-doctoral fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Public Policy. He’s the author of Caste Matters. In this explosive book, Suraj, who is a first-generation Dalit scholar educated across continents, challenges deep-seated beliefs about caste and unpacks its many layers.

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