Planning for the Just City

By Professor Susan Fainstein, Harvard University

The First Civic University Lecture

Friday 21 October 2011

Firth Hall, Firth Court, Western Bank, Sheffield S10 2TN

The nature of cities affects individual and collective well-being. In the first Civic University Lecture, Susan Fainstein will reflect on the intellectual and policy implications of her significant new book, The Just City. The concept of the "just city" is designed to encourage policy-makers to embrace a different approach to urban development. The objective is to combine progressive city planners' earlier focus on equity and material well-being with considerations of diversity and participation so as to foster a better quality of urban life within the context of a global capitalist political economy. The argument applies theoretical concepts about justice developed by contemporary philosophers to the concrete problems faced by urban planners and policymakers and argues that, despite structural obstacles, meaningful reform can be achieved at the local level. Her analysis is underpinned by detailed analysis of post-war urban policies in New York, London, and Amsterdam. However, the aim is to move beyond analysis, to identify a set of specific criteria for policy-makers to consider when developing initiatives so as to assure greater justice in both the process of their formulation and their effects.

This lecture was supported by the Public Services Academy and the Department of Town and Regional Planning.

Susan Fainstein is Professor of Urban Planning in the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. She has also taught at Columbia and Rutgers Universities. A leading authority on comparative urban public policy, urban redevelopment and planning theory, her books include: The Just City, The City Builders; Restructuring the City; and Urban Political Movements. She received the Distinguished Educator Award from the (American) Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning in 2004. Currently, she is a Member of the European Research Council´s Advanced Grant Panel, chairing the Environment, Space and Population Committee. She has been appointed to advisory roles for local authorities in the US and Europe.

Watch the lecture