Spatial Justice

Marginalized communities around the world are disproportionately impacted by the distribution of unjust infrastructure and environmental conditions. However, through distributive, procedural, and restorative frameworks, it is possible to teach spatial designers to challenge, inform, and reshape the world toward a more just and equitable future. This chapter delves into the various themes developed as part of the “Spatial Justice” professional elective at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, which offers an interdisciplinary perspective on urban studies, urban design, and the roles that social, environmental, and ecological justice play in designing a more just and equitable urbanity. In this course, students explore critical urban theory, justice, counter cartographies, design activism, participatory systems, and spatial agency using alternative mapping methodologies to render legible latent sociospatial asymmetries.

Inclusivity insights: two urban development projects in Johannesburg

Johannesburg, which is South Africa’s largest city and economic center, is still influenced by patterns of inequality of the past. Although spatial transformation has been rapid since 1994, spatial divisions along class lines are still prevalent long after the apartheid era. This is despite the fact that societal values such as inclusivity, spatial justice and equal access to resources have become the core goals of Johannesburg’s spatial and urban development. This is particularly true when addressing housing, public open spaces, transport and social infrastructure embedded in a suitable land-use mix. However, despite the adoption of numerous policies by government, this research indicates that even recent urban development projects such as Fleurhof and Waterfall are falling short in delivering those objectives. Based on a case study analysis, we show that significant dysfunctionalities become evident when evaluating these two projects, despite their meeting relevant indicators of spatial inclusion on paper. Tensions are identified between theoretical approaches and the implementation of societally relevant policy goals. These include inclusivity and spatial justice by mostly privatized provision of housing and services, and deficiencies in public maintenance of infrastructure. The research reveals, that ‘ticking-the-boxes’ behavior on policy and project level does not produce equitable, inclusive neighborhoods and urban spatial patterns, but rather reproduces spatial inequalities of the past. If these policies are to result in real spatial change and improvement in the lives of Johannesburg residents, a more proactive approach by the public sector at different levels will be necessary.

The Science of Data, Data Science: Perversions and Possibilities in the Anthropocene Through a Spatial Justice Lens

In the Anthropocene statistics, data science, and mathematical models have become a perversion of reality that society has largely chosen to ignore and is embraced as a great savior because people often view numbers as objective purveyors of truth. However, numbers do not interpret themselves, they do not tell their own story; people do that in all their subjective glory. In this chapter, I start by making connections between the Anthropocene and the disciplines of statistics and data science specifically through the context of spatial data. From this discussion I focus on two main points, which I connect to education. The first is that there is a dialectic tension involved in spatial data enquiry between creating new realities using spatial data and using spatial data to make sense of our reality. The second point is that people can choose how to investigate and use spatial data based on their ethics. I believe students should have opportunities to investigate and use spatial statistics through a spatial justice lens both to learn about the world around them and to shape the world around them.

The role of business support interventions in promoting spatial justice : a case study of informal economic development in a residential zone, eThekwini (Ward 68)

The beginnings of apartheid initiated the manipulation of plans and policy to create cities which deeply entrenched segregation into the landscape of South Africa. This history of spatial exclusion is evident in the study area, Ward 68 in the South Durban Basin (SDB), with its diverse mix of industrial and residential land uses, with a proposed dug-out port planned for the area. In the three suburbs of Ward 68, some homes were spaces in which business was conducted. The diverse land uses, which has introduced formal and informal changes to space, have an impact on the people living and working in this area. In efforts to address the injustices of apartheid, South African strategy and legislation have included support to informal businesses; the National Informal Business Upliftment Strategy (NIBUS) serves as an example. This study uses the term “Business support interventions” (BSI) to describe the diverse approaches to providing financial or non-financial support to businesses. These interventions enable and strengthen informal businesses in residential zones, that is, home-based enterprises (HBE). The appropriateness of BSI and their effect on the quality of local spaces needed to be explored. Inadequate spatial orientation of BSI reduces the impact of HBE projects and programmes in townships. The mixed methods approach to this research includes a methodological design that uses qualitative and quantitative data. This research aims to contribute towards both practical methods for understanding the spatial-economic condition of local urban spaces, and towards providing more nuanced data and knowledge to BSI and urban management in the eThekwini Municipality (Durban). Distinctive challenges for the urban environment are related to the city’s spatial- economic disparities. A spatial justice lens and a case study approach have allowed for a critical investigation of how spatial logic can be applied to collaboratively address challenges of informality in urban spaces.

heologies of Land: Contested Land, Spatial Justice, and Identity

K.K. Yeo and Gene L. Green, eds. Theologies of Land: Contested Land, Spatial Justice, and Identity, Crosscurrents in Majority World and Minority Theology (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2021), 194 pp., ISBN 9781725265080, $25.00, eBook.

Assessing Inequalities in Wellbeing at a Neighbourhood Scale in Low-Middle-Income-Country Secondary Cities and Their Implications for Long-Term Livability

To ensure future sustainability, cities need to consider concepts of livability and resident wellbeing alongside environmental, economic and infrastructure development equity. The current rapid urbanization experienced in many regions is leading to sustainability challenges, but also offers the opportunity to deliver infrastructure supporting the social aspects of cities and the services that underpin them alongside economic growth. Unfortunately, evidence of what is needed to deliver urban wellbeing is largely absent from the global south. This paper contributes to filling this knowledge gap through a novel interdisciplinary mixed methods study undertaken in two rapidly changing cities (one Thai and one Kenyan) using qualitative surveys, subjective wellbeing and stress measurements, and spatial analysis of urban infrastructure distribution. We find the absence of basic infrastructure (including waste removal, water availability and quality) unsurprisingly causes significant stress for city residents. However, once these services are in place, smaller variations (inequalities) in social (crime, tenure) and environmental (noise, air quality) conditions begin to play a greater role in determining differences in subjective wellbeing across a city. Our results indicate that spending time in urban greenspaces can mitigate the stressful impacts of city living even for residents of informal neighborhoods. Our data also highlights the importance of places that enable social interactions supporting wellbeing–whether green or built. These results demonstrate the need for diversity and equity in the provision of public realm spaces to ensure social and spatial justice. These findings strengthen the need to promote long term livability in LMIC urban planning alongside economic growth, environmental sustainability, and resilience.