MÓDULO FORMATIVO 1: DESARROLLO DE PROYECTOS DE INSTALACIÓN Y AMUEBLAMIENTO

The issues of citizenship, patriarchy, racism, collective consumption, the law, the state and civil society reviewed in this chapter all raise, in one way or another, the ques- tion of social justice in the city. David Harvey, following Engels, recognizes that conceptions of justice vary not only with time and place, but also with the persons con- cerned (Harvey, 1992). It follows that it is essential to examine the material and moral bases for the produc- tion of the lifeworlds from which divergent concepts of social justice emerge. This we shall do in subsequent chapters. Meanwhile, however, it is useful to clarify some basic concepts and principles with respect to social justice: no student of social geography will be able to avoid confrontation with the moral (or theoretical) dilemmas of social justice for long.

There are, as Harvey points out, many competing concepts of social justice. Among them are: the posi- tive law view (that justice is simply a matter of law); the utilitarian view (allowing us to discriminate between good and bad law on the basis of the greatest good of the greatest number); and the natural rights view (that no amount of greater good for a greater number can justify the violation of certain inalien- able rights). Making clear sense of these concepts and understanding the ‘moral geographies’ of postindus- trial cities and postmodern societies (which contain fragmented sociocultural groups and a variety of social movements, all eager to articulate their own defini- tions of social justice) is a task that even Harvey finds challenging. Having wrestled with the fundamental issues ever since writing the immensely influential volume on Social Justice and the City, published in 1973, Harvey avoids the fruitless task of reconciling competing claims to conceptions of social justice in different contexts. Rather, he follows Iris Young (1990) in focusing on sources of oppression, from which he

Chapter summary

5.1 The processes at work in cities have both shaped, and been shaped by, institutional frameworks. The law is a crucial link between the public and private spheres of city life. The changing economic base of urban areas has important implications for city life.

5.2 The fragmentation of cities into multiple political and administrative jurisdictions is justified in the interests of local democracy but often leads to considerable inequalities in resource allocation. 5.3 The functioning of local democracy is influenced by electoral frameworks, elected officials and city

bureaucrats as well as the parapolitical structure of informal groups focused around residents, organized labour and various business interests.

5.4 Who has most power to effectively control cities is a question that has produced numerous theories principally: the pluralist, managerialist, instrumentalist and structuralist interpretations. Regulation theory is seen by some as a way of overcoming the limitations of these previous theories.

5.5 The functioning of institutional frameworks in mediating the activities of citizens and the state raises crucial issues of social and territorial justice.

Key films related to urban social geography – Chapter 5

Chinatown (1974) A retro detective story of the film noir genre. Although a fictionalized account of the expan- sion of Los Angels (see Chapter 14) many argue that this film captures the essence of local politics in the United States. Another on the ‘must-see’ list for those interested in relationships between cinema and the city. Devil in a Blue Dress (1995) Another detective story in a genre that has been termed the ‘New Black Realism’. Deals with issues of race, identity and

power but in a subtle way in an excit- ing story.

The Phenix City Story (1955) A semi- documentary, low-budget film dealing with political corruption in a city in Alabama.

Sunshine State (2002) A film by John Sayles dealing with issues that cross many chapters in Urban Social Geo- graphy: politics, racism and neighbour- hood change. Deals with the pressures on an older black neighbourhood in coastal Florida under threat from

developers. Full of interesting and com- plex characters.

When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (2006) A documentary movie by celebrated director Spike Lee focusing on the devastation wrought on New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina. Shows that this was not just an ‘act of nature’ but a consequence of governmental neglect at federal and local levels both before and after the disaster.

Dehaene, M. and De Cauter, L. (eds) (2008) Hetero-

topia and the City; Public space in a postcivil society

Routledge, New York

Feagin, J. (1997) The New Urban Paradigm: Critical

perspectives on the city Rowman & Littlefield,

Lanham, MD

Hackworth, J. (2006) The Neoliberal City: Governance,

ideology, and development in American urbanism

Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY

Iveson, K. (2007) Publics and the City Blackwell, Oxford

Jacobs, B. (1992) Fractured Cities: Capitalism, community

and empowerment in Britain and America Routledge,

London

Johnston, R. (1979) Political, Electoral, and Spatial

Systems Clarendon Press, Oxford

Johnston, R. (1990) The territoriality of law, Urban

Geography 11, 548 – 65

Judge, D., Stoker, G. and Wolman, H. (eds) (1995)

Theories of Urban Politics Sage, London

Lauria, M. (1996) Reconstructing Urban Regime Theory:

Regulating urban politics in a global economy Sage,

Beverly Hills, CA

Suggested reading

Spatial and institutional frameworks

Birch, E.L. (2009) The Urban and Regional Planning

Reader Routledge, London

Blomley, N., Delaney, D. and Ford, T. et al. (eds) (2000)

The Legal Geographies Reader Blackwell, Oxford

Blomley, N. (2004) Unsettling the City: Urban land

and the politics of property Routledge, London and

New York.

Brenner, N. (2004) New State Spaces: Urban governance

and the rescaling of statehood Oxford University

Press, Oxford.

Clark, G. (1990) Geography and law, in R. Peet and N. Thrift (eds) New Models in Geography Unwin Hyman, London

Cox, K. (1989) The politics of turf and the question of class, in J. Wolch and M. Dear (eds) The Power of

Geography Unwin Hyman, London

Dear, M. (1984) State Apparatus: Structures and lan-

guage of legitimacy Allen & Unwin, London

accumulation agency Balkanization citizenship civic entrepreneurialism civil society coalition building collective consumption decision rules de jure territories fiscal imbalance fiscal mercantilism gerrymandering governance jurisdictional partitioning laissez-faire legitimating agent local state malapportionment managerialism metropolitan fragmentation mode of regulation municipal socialism NIMBY parapolitical structure paternalism pluralistic model pro-growth coalitions property-led development public sphere racism regime of accumulation regime theory regulation theory sexism shadow state social movements social reproduction subsidiarity

suburban exploitation thesis superstructure

sustainability voluntarism welfare pluralism zoning

Leitner, H., Peck, J. and E. Sheppard (eds) (2007)

Contesting Neoliberalism: Urban frontiers Guilford

Press, New York

Mitchell, D. (2003) The Right to the City: Social justice

and the fight for public space Guilford Press, New

York

Smith, M.P. (1988) City, State and Market Blackwell, Oxford

Teaford, J.C. (1997) Post-suburbia: Government and

politics in the edge cities Johns Hopkins University

Press, Baltimore, MD

Planning and urban policy in the United Kingdom

Atkinson, R. and Moon, G. (1999) Urban Policy in

Britain: The city, the state and the market Macmillan,

London

Cullingworth, B. and Nadin, V. (2006) Town and Country

Planning in the UK Routledge, London

Healey, P., Cameron, S., Davoudi, S. and Graham, S.

et al. (eds) (1995) Managing Cities: The new urban context John Wiley, London

Hill, D.M. (2000) Urban Policy and Politics in Britain Palgrave, Basingstoke

Imrie, R. and Raco, M. (2003) Urban Renaissance? New

Labour, community and urban policy Policy Press,

Bristol

Imrie, R. and Thomas, H. (eds) (1999) British Urban

Policy and the Urban Development Corporations (2nd

edn) Paul Chapman, London

Oatley, N. (ed.) (1998) Cities, Economic Competition

and Urban Policy Paul Chapman, London

Strom, E. and Mollenkopf, J. (2006) The Urban Politics

Reader Routledge, London

Planning and urban policy in the United States

Cullingworth, B. and Caves, R. (2003) Planning in the

USA Routledge, London

Governance in EU cities

Herrschel, T. and Newman, P. (2002) Governance of

Europe’s City Regions Spon, London

Slate, W., Thornley, A. and Kreukels, A. (2002) Metro-

politan Governance and Spatial Planning Spon, London

Citizenship

Valentine, G. and Skelton, T. (2007) The right to be heard: citizenship and language, Political Geography

26, 121– 40

Urban Studies (2003) Special Issue on Citizenship,

Vol. 24, Issue 2

Social justice

Harvey, D. (1992) Social justice, postmodernism, and the city, International Journal of Urban and Regional

Research 16, 588 – 601

Smith, D. (1994) Geography and Social Justice Blackwell, Oxford

Smith, D. (2000) Moral Geographies: Ethics in a world of

difference Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh

Smith, D. (2000) Social justice revisited, Environment

of the broad machinations of economics: supply and demand, working within (and interacting with) long- wave economic cycles and conditioned by the evolving institutional structures described in Chapter 5.

Yet the production of the built environment is not simply a function of supply and demand played out on a stage set by broad economic and institutional forces. It is also a function of time- and place-specific social relations that involve a variety of key actors (including landowners, investors, financiers, developers, builders, design professionals, construction workers, business and community leaders and consumers). At the same time, the state – both local and national – must be recognized as an important agent in its own right and as a regu- lator of competition between various actors.

These sets of relations represent structures of building

provision through which we can understand the social

production of the built environment. These structures of building provision need to be understood in terms

Structures of building

In document BOLETÍN OFICIAL DEL ESTADO (página 121-125)