City Matters

Uitgebreide vaknaam	City Matters: Urban Inequality and Social Justice
Leerdoelen	1. Understand the changing socio-economic and institutional (welfare state) context of social problems and polarizations in urban areas. 2. Describe various concepts that capture urban social problems such as poverty, urban marginality, segregation, territorial stigmatization and social exclusion, and their intellectual roots. 3. Explain how different configurations of the political economy on various scales result in different levels of social protection and how spatial planning interventions affect social and environmental justice in particular places. 4. Identify different ethical positions in various theories of spatial justice. 5. Apply different perspectives on spatial justice to historic and contemporary urban developments with an international perspective.
Omschrijving	City Matters: Social Justice and Urban Inequality confronts you with the moral dimension of spatial planning. Too often, planners seek the most effective and efficient planning strategy to reach a pre-defined desired future, without questioning who has the power to define what is desired, and for whom this is desirable. City Matters helps develop critical agency in the field of planning to develop just solutions. The urgent societal issues of our times urge urban planners to rethink the foundational principles of planning. We witness the beginning of the ’urban age’ where the majority of people live in cities. However, due to the liberalisation of the world economy and the restructuring of (European) welfare states, the economic situation of large social groups in the global North and the global South has become precarious. As a result, European cities are in constant transformation. Cities that are well connected in the (world) city network become increasingly unaffordable places to live in for those with moderate incomes. On different spatial scales, we observe an increase of socio-spatial polarisation. As socio-economic and ethnic segregation is on the rise, fears for the emergence of a social group that is excluded from mainstream society, economy, and civic life, are growing. Altogether, these developments confront every planner with issues of justice. This course enables you to build your own framework to develop and conduct theory-informed empirical research in new socio-geographical contexts and to propose ‘just’ planning interventions. In City Matters: Social Justice and Urban Inequality, four main questions will be discussed: 1. Which mechanisms – including planning – have generated the contemporary societal problems, such as the housing crisis, urban marginality and location-based activism? We review these mechanisms through the lens of political economy and critical urban theory, not considering them as ‘blind’ or ‘neutral’ processes, but as expressions of power imbalances between interest groups with different ideologies and agendas. 2. How much (in)equality is fair? In the course, the most important theoretical views on justice (such as utilitarianism, egalitarianism, sufficientarianism, and prioritarianism) are discussed. Furthermore, we discuss the arguments why a given level of inequality is fair according to these theories. 3. Which inequalities are relevant for planners? This question (re)defines the scope for spatial interventions and uncovers approaches to define just cities. To answer this question, several theories of spatial justice (such as Susan Fainstein, David Harvey, Edward Soja and Peter Marcuse) are discussed. 4. How can urban planners contribute to more ‘just’ cities? Challenges that planners and politicians face while trying to create affordable housing and inclusive communities will be discussed. Furthermore, we look at successful practices such as ‘commoning’, whereby people take control of their own community and resources. This course consists of eight lectures, seven seminars and an excursion where we visit an urban (re)development project that can be contested and supported from different perspectives on spatial justice.
Uren per week	variabel
Onderwijsvorm	Excursions, Guest lectures, Lectures, Seminars
Toetsvorm	Examination with open questions digital, Group assignments (+ Group presentation (part of the group assignment))
Vaksoort	master
Coördinator	Dr. C.W. Lamker
Docent(en)	Dr. C.W. Lamker , S. Özogul, PhD. , S. van Lanen
Verplichte literatuur	Titel Auteur ISBN Prijs Literature will be announced before the beginning of the course via Nestor
Entreevoorwaarden
Opmerkingen	Priority for SSP students and ReMa students. The course has max 50 places. Email educationoffice.fss@rug.nl to be put on the waiting list, first come first serve. If places are still available after all SSP have enrolled, we will start placing other FSS master students from the waiting list.
Opgenomen in	Opleiding Jaar Periode Type MSc Economic Geography  (Optional courses Economic Geography) 1 semester I a keuze MSc Environmental and Infrastructure Planning  (Optional courses EIP) 1 semester I a keuze MSc Population Studies  (Optional courses Population Studies) 1 semester I a keuze MSc Real Estate Studies  (Optional courses Real Estate Studies) 1 semester I a keuze MSc Society, Sustainability and Planning  (Basic programme Society, Sustainability and Planning) 1 semester I a verplicht MSc Spatial Sciences (research)  (Optional thematic courses (GERMTTO) year 1 and 2 Spatial Sciences) - semester I a keuze