Spatial justice
The project’s main goal is to build a robust framework that ties justice and spatial planning, bringing new perspectives to spatial justice in policymaking. It will do so by evaluating accessibility to housing, education, and health care services according to principles of spatial justice, articulating normative principles, objective measures, and subjective understandings of spatial justice.
The JUSTPLAN project follows a mixed-method and multiscale approach which includes:
establishing a theoretical framework of different principles of justice;
measuring patterns of inequality at the national scale;
analysing spatial justice in local planning contexts, including stakeholders preferences and perceptions;
discussing the way spatial inequalities are linked to the vulnerabilities and risks of different territories;
providing policy-oriented conceptual frameworks and guidelines;
presenting key indicators that can measure spatial justice in context, and presenting them in dashboards built according to a co-design methodology.
The JUSTPLAN project analysis spatial justice in three main policy domains: housing, education, and health care.
In housing, the market plays a central role in its allocation leading to high levels of inequality, making it a relevant subject for discussing spatial justice. In JUSTPLAN, the focus is on how to incorporate general principles of justice in measuring housing provision and on the role of territoriality in this measurement. It addresses shelter poverty, referring to the relation between residual income and household size and composition, and affordability, where income-price ratios play an important role.
In education providing a fair access to schools is challenged by the many closures, as well as differences in the access that is provided to different socioeconomic groups. JUSTPLAN incorporates three approaches: analysing the relationship between socioeconomic stratification and the accessibility to primary schools; understanding the interplay between service provision and different groups’ capabilities; understanding local stakeholders’ conceptions of justice.
In health care, understating spatial justice is challenged by the many types of services that can be provided and by the quick exhaustion of the capacity at a given location. JUSTPLAN focusses on assessing patterns of accessibility in different dimensions and how the levels of service provision differ for socioeconomic groups. It includes documental analysis and interviews with policymakers and applies multiple criteria decision analysis to address the trade-offs between the dimensions.
This framework has two components: i) criteria and metrics to measure and evaluate spatial inequality, and ii) normative-oriented guidelines and practical support for assessing individual and collective perceptions of justice.
Applying statistical methods will allow to identify social and spatial patterns of inequality in sectoral policies (housing, education and health) at the national scale, which will be evaluated according to different perspectives of justice.
The survey, applied at the national level, aims at identifying the individual conceptions of justice and the perceptions of inequalities in housing, education and health.
The identification of spatial and sectoral principles and their ranking, from the in-depth analysis, where the project’s normative and descriptive frameworks are applied.
The dashboards will provide access to a set of indicators, contributing to monitor justice within sustainable and resilient development strategies, which will be accessible on the project’s website.
The research team will publish a spatial justice handbook highlighting the major outcomes of the JUSTPLAN research project. It will improve the outreach of the project regarding different publics: policymakers, academic community, and the general public.
João Lourenço Marques
project coordinator
Ana Cruz
Anabela Botelho
Ana Grifo
Arnab Bhattacharjee
Carlos Gonçalves
Diana Lopes
Eduardo Anselmo de Castro
Fillipe Feitosa
Jan Wolf
João Vicente
Jorge Simões
José Moreira
José Manuel Martins
Mara Madaleno
Maria Cristina Gomes
Miguel Viegas
Monique Borges
Óscar Mealha
Sara Moreno Pires
Glen Bramley
Tapabrata Maiti
Tomaz Dentinho
Departamento de Ciências Sociais, Políticas e do Território, Campus Universitário de Santiago 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal
E-mail: dcspt-getin@ua.pt
Phone: 234 370 005
This work is financed by national funds through the FCT I.P. in the context of the JUST_PLAN project (PTDC/GES-OUT/2662/20)