Database of drivers of injustice

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This database consists of the summaries of results of an in-depth study on the drivers and manifestations of urban injustice related to sustainability.

This study examined 43 relevant EU-funded research projects, taking place since the mid-2000s identified the following ten drivers of injustice which manifest, arise or are being exacerbated, in the context of urban sustainability efforts:


  1. Exclusive access to the benefits of sustainability infrastructure
  2. Material and livelihood inequalities
  3. Racialized or ethnically exclusionary urbanization
  4. Uneven and exclusionary urban intensification and regeneration
  5. Uneven environmental health and pollution patterns
  6. Unfit institutional structures
  7. Limited citizen participation in urban planning
  8. Lack of effective knowledge brokerage and stewardship opportunities
  9. Unquestioned Neoliberal growth and austerity urbanism
  10. Weak(ened) civil society


This in turn built on an extensive mapping of different approaches towards sustainability and justice, evidenced and studied in Europe through a broader sample of 350 EU-funded research projects. Data used to develop this document included: deliverables; policy briefs; reports on events; academic and non-academic publications together with targeted interviews of core researchers in those projects.

Justice is understood here as a variegated set of conditions ― substantially concerned with distribution of resources, political processes, and social recognition ― that allows for full human flourishing. If conditions within a given society systematically support some, but hinder other individuals or groups with regard to basic flourishing (i.e. thriving within reasonable limits) according to achievable outcomes that they value in order to live a healthy and fulfilled life, then that society is to some degree unjust (see for example the work of Fraser, 2005 [1]; Nussbaum, 2000 [2]; Schlosberg, 2013 [3]).


10 drivers of injustice in the context of urban sustainability


The drivers presented in this database formed the basis of discussions at the second UrbanA Arena event, taking place online on June 4th and 5th 2020, and organized by the Barcelona Lab for Urban Environmental Justice and Sustainability.

Insights were added to complement the information in the summary booklet prepared for the Arena, and the wiki pages will be opened for further co-creation by members of the UrbanA Community of Practice.

Short video summaries of each driver are also available on the UrbanA Youtube account.


A conclusion from this meta-analysis of EU-projects, broader literature review, and co-creation process during the UrbanA Arena event, is that urban sustainability efforts aspiring to address the current and future needs of society call for greater attention to questions of and claims for justice, as those needs are being shaped by deeply political processes and differential access to resources while also being unequally recognised in society. The challenge remains in how to make urban neighbourhoods greener, healthier, more sustainable and more liveable, while protecting the right to housing, public space, and healthy amenities, for all.


References

  1. Fraser, N. (2005). Mapping the feminist imagination: From redistribution to recognition to representation. Constellations, 12(3), 295–307. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511619205.002
  2. Nussbaum, M. (2000). Women’s capabilities and social justice. Journal of Human Development, 1(2), 219–247.
  3. Schlosberg, D. (2013). Theorising environmental justice: the expanding sphere of a discourse. Environmental Politics, 22(1), 37–55.