Spatial Justice

Abstract

'Regeneration of place that has socially just outcomes' is taken as the broad definition of 'spatial justice' in this position paper, based on a longitudinal case study of North Kensington from 1976 to 2012.The research topic of 'spatial justice in planning theory and regeneration practice' follows the researcher's experience over three decades as a regeneration practitioner in south-eastern England and London. The component of 'digitality' is contained within the three measures proposed to account for spatial justice: spatial relations within an urban setting, longitudinal socio-economic comparisons in an area, and the level of intra-urban/regional governance applied in the case study area.These measures will aid the identification of principles and basic institutions of governance which, if applied, would support improved 'spatial justice' outcomes in large-scale regeneration programmes. By focusing on the impact of digital technologies on urban geographies, this paper seeks to spotlight assumed values and underlying principles for spatial justice. While digitality makes many positive contributions to reductions in inequality (more accessible resources, better services, more freely available information), some aspects of digitalization can give cause for concern, often in the area of values and ethics, the most prominent being privacy issues.The analysis of the concept of spatial justice may help to uncover how established values might be maintained, if indeed these values are those that our liberal-democratic society wishes to perpetuate, and may serve to highlight positive prospects for increasing the democratization of space through the application of new digital technologies.