Social Injustice Inflicted by Spatial Changes in Vernacular Settings: An Analysis of Published Literature

Abstract

It is well known that every kind of development has the tendancy to produce spatial disparity or spatial justice. However, usually, it is the demand-driven, rural, non-agricultural transitional area development considered the prime cause of concern for policy planners. Indeed, this is an area where spatial justice needs to be ensured so that development is just for all and not lopsided for any single stakeholder. For example, there is a need to ensure that fair allocation of land development rights rests with the village dwellers. Usually, the market is biased in favour of allocating premium land of the vernacular settlements to expand the city for new city dwellers who wish to get new parcels of land for developing housing. Plan-led spatial changes without corrective mediation between villagers and the city dwellers also lead to bias decision-making. Transition from rural sprawl to urban compactness suggests institutional change need be adopted in governance so that socio-spatial justice for villagers is incorporated into an integrated city. In this context, this paper examines the current knolwdge reflected through academic narratives of social injustice inflicted by spatial change. This paper presents the concept of spatial justice as an umbrella term encompassing all political, social, economic, and environmental forms. Gentrification and peri-urbanization are two spatial changes that do injustice to certain social groups. The paper employs both quantitative and qualitative data gathering techniques. It conducts primarily a document survey, analysing published research related to development and social and spatial justics issues. The documents discussing the role of planning in achieving spatial justice until 2023 are examined. The paper reveals that while formal planning often marginalizes vernacular settlements, participatory and communitydriven planning processes show potential for addressing issues of spatial injustice. The paper concludes that the investigation into spatial justice within vernacular settlements must account for unique socio-cultural, environmental, and economic dynamics.