Scoping land tenure security for the poor and low-income urban dwellers from a spatial justice lens

Abstract

Existing studies on spatial justice discuss how different aspects of spatial injustices repeatedly deprive the poor and low-income urban dwellers of access to urban amenities. According to these studies, increasing equity in the allocation of urban resources for all categories of urbanites can remedy these injustices. However, land tenure security, a pre-condition for access to urban amenities for the poor and low-income urban dwellers, is hardly addressed. This study explores the potential of spatial justice to land tenure security discourse, using a meta-synthesis of the literature on both concepts. It draws upon the Brazilian experience of implementing inclusive urban (re)development framework, which aims at integrating the poor and low-income urban dwellers in the urban fabric. Land tenure security is understood from the spatial aspect of social justice, rather than its traditional economic conceptualisation. We find that the pursuit of the three forms of spatial justice (alongside the processes of urban (re)development) promotes the three elements of tenure security differently. Procedural justice is identified as the main driver of land tenure security, whose prominent features are the perceived and the de facto tenure security.