Geog248/UDSC248

Social Justice and the City

Room: JC215

Prof. Mark Davidson

Class: Mon/Thu 1:25-2:40
Office Hrs:
Hrs Thurs 3-4:30pm
Office: JAC103
Tele: 793-7291

Geog248/UDSC248

Social Justice and the City

Course Description
From their very beginnings cities have been sights of social tension, exploitation and emancipatory
movements. This remains the same today, with a host of contemporary processes giving rise to new
questions of justice and, at the same time, resurrecting some age-old issues. Indeed, cities today face
unprecedented challenges. Migration, rapid urbanization, growing inequality, authoritarian governments,
racial tensions, terrorism, climate change, and the list goes on. These issues are also transformed by
processes of globalization, whereby the connections and networks between cities separated by vast
physical distances have intensified, leading to complex urban relationships that have required new
theoretical understandings.
Urban segregation is not a frozen status quo, but rather a ceaseless social war in which the state
intervenes regularly in the name of progress, beautification and even social justice for the
poor to redraw spatial boundaries to the advantage of landowners, foreign investors, elite
homeowners, and middle-class commuters (Mike Davis, 2006, p.98 Planet of the Slums)

We are therefore faced with more questions of social justice than ever. However, in many arenas,
discussions of justice, ethics and morality have been muted over the past twenty years. Philosopher Slavoj
Zizek (1999, 198) argues that those ideas which have previously guided our efforts towards social justice
have been replaced by the collaboration of enlightened technocrats ... and liberal multiculturalists via the
process of negotiation of interests. His claim is that our ability to discuss ideas of social justice has been
eroded over recent years. For some, it has therefore become paramount that we re-assemble our debates
around social justice so that the collections of growing urban social problems can be dealt with.
More radically, justice names the possibility from the point of view of what brings into being as
subject-effect that what is non-law may serve as law (Alain Badiou, 1982, p.176 - Thorie du
sujet)

Faced with this challenge, this course examines the concept of social justice and explores its various
relations to the city and urban development. The course seeks to introduce a variety of ways that we can
think about and debate social justice. This draws from various traditions of work (e.g. feminist,
liberatianism, Marxism, moral philosophy) and explores them using a geographical perspective. With
these various dialogues on social justice sketched out, the course turns its attention to the urban
question. It asks what is distinctive about the issue of social justice in an urban context and whether we
need a more geographically-informed viewpoint from with to deploy our positions on social justice. We
therefore seek not to develop absolute positions on the questions of justice or ethics, but rather open up
debate and discussion on the antagonisms we find inherent in the city. In the final section of the course, a
number of urban themes are examined and we attempt to bring our understandings of social justice to
these themes.
Course Objectives
The purpose of this course is to introduce students to various geographically-informed conceptualisations
of social justice in order that they are able to develop contextual understandings on a variety of urban
social problems. It is intended that students will gain a competency in discussing urban social justice
issues in order that they reflect on those facing them in their own lives. While engaging with a variety of
disciplines, the course is rooted in the geographical literature.

By the end of the semester students should be able to:

- Define, describe and debate a number of key theories of social justice including those relating to
ethics, morality, rights, membership, space, time and difference.
- Trace the development of social justice debate within the geographical literature
- Identify the ways in which urbanism has presented a number of particular social justice questions
and discuss how these relate to theories of social justice
- Recognise the ways in which justice remains a central concern within the urban environment and
how the operation of justice continue to shape urban development and how we live in the city
- Examine a set of varied urban processes and problems (including capitalist development, socialist
city planning, gentrification, place-making, housing, gender, sexuality, race) from a social justice
perspective
- Recognise the understandings of social justice currently being employed in examples of
contemporary urban social movements
Teaching Format
The course will be delivered in both lecture and seminar formats. In the first sections of the course,
lectures will be primarily be utilised in order that students be introduced to their readings relating to the
courses key concepts. In the latter sections of the course, seminars and class discussions will be utilised
in order to develop debate around assigned readings and film presentations.
Learning Evaluation and Grading
A variety of evaluation methods are used in the course. They include: (i) closed-book examinations in
order that firm understandings of the courses key concepts are established; (ii) participation grades in
order that student effort is recognised in respect to discussion preparation and class participation; (iii) a
photo-documentary research project that will ask students to narrate their own identified urban social
justice issue in order that their ability to apply their classroom learning is indicated; and (iv) a final
research paper that will gauge the strength of connections students have made been the conceptual and
case study elements of the course:
Grades will be based upon four elements:
- Participation 20%
- Mid-Term 25%
- Photo-Documentary 25%
- Research Paper 30%
Class Participation (20%)
Attendance and participation is required. The class places significant emphasis upon the discussion of
readings and debate. You should show evidence of reading and careful consideration of readings in your
class participation. Before arriving at the indicated classes (see syllabus) you should prepare a summary
of the readings and have prepared a set of discussion questions (the former are to be submitted). At the
start of classes, I will randomly select students to introduce the set readings and initiate debate using their
prepared questions.
Mid-Term Exam (25%)
In the seventh week of class there will be a 1 hour exam. The exam will consist of two questions that will
ask you to discuss the issues examined in the first half of the class.
Photographic Documentary (25%)
At the end of the course you will present a photographic documentary of a research project of your
choosing. The photographs should be used to document a research subject related to class material. Your

photographic materials should be accompanied by some textual or audio narration. You may use still
and/or motion photography. You may use your own photographic material or that gathered from other
sources (note: you must recognise the source of your materials).
Research Paper (30%)
The final research paper will give you the opportunity to take up either a theoretical or empirical aspect of
the course. After the mid-term exam, a broad research question will be set. This will give you some
guidance on the thematic content of the paper and a detailed set of instructions to help you decide on your
particular research issue.
Course etiquette
Attendance: Students are expected to attend every class. If you miss a class ensure you ask a classmate for
notes.
Readings: For many classes, students are expected to have read and understood the allocated readings. All
readings that are required for class discussions will either be distributed to students in class or available at
the library. In classes where lectures are given, students should read those readings indicated on the
reading list. Lectures are not meant to provide you with complete knowledge of the research subject. They
are design to give you an introduction to the taught material. Your after-class reading should therefore be
used to reinforce and extend lecture material. A substantial supplementary reading list is provided at the
end of the syllabus and you should utilise this both with respect to your class-related and assessmentrelated reading.
Plagiarism: Is not acceptable under any circumstances and is not tolerated. All cases will be immediately
referred to the College Board (see: http://www.clarku.edu/offices/aac/integrity.cfm)
Classroom behaviour: Cell phones must be switched off in class. During class you should not use your
laptop to surf the web.
Email: Students should treat email like postal mail. I only check my email once a day (usually in the
mornings) and you should not expect that I will reply to your email straightaway unless it is an urgent
matter. As a rule of thumb, please ask yourself if your question can: (a) wait until our next class meeting
and (b) is already answered in the syllabus.
Cicada Announcements: I will use Cicada for all class-related announcements. You should check this
regularly for updates etc.
Learning Issues: Students with learning, physical, or psychiatric disabilities enrolled in this course that
may need disability-related classroom accommodations are encouraged to make an office appointment to
see me before the end of the second week of the term. All discussions will remain confidential, although I
may seek advice on matters with appropriate services within the university.
Lateness and Excuses: All assessments should be handed-in on time and in accordance with the
requirements set out in assessment instructions. Absence from classes and late submission of coursework
is only excused if you provide documented evidence explaining your absence/lateness (i.e.: for illness a
doctors note). Absence and lateness will result in deductions from your final class grade. I realize that
some students may wish to take part in religious observances that fall during the academic term. Should
you have a religious observance that conflicts with your participation in the course, please come speak
with me before the end of the second week of the term to discuss appropriate accommodations.

Office Hours: My office hours are indicated on the top of the syllabus. You are encouraged to come and
discuss any aspects of the class with me during these hours. Please be advised that office hours can
become busy periods, so our meeting may be limited in duration to ensure that all student inquiries get
addressed. In the case of repeatedly busy office hours, a booking sheet will be placed on my office door
where you will be able to reserve a specific meeting time during my office hours.
Schedule
Week One Introduction
Week Two Social Justice: Concept and Theory
Week Three Ethics/Discussion
Week Four Urbanism and Social Justice / Policing
Week Five Protest / Prison
Week Six Power / Public Space
Week Seven Review / Exam
Week Eight Spring Break [photo documentary]
Week Nine Segregation / Film
Week Ten Capitalist City
Week Eleven [Post-]Socialist City
Week Twelve Gentrification
Week Thirteen Housing [no class]
Week Fourteen Diversity
Week Fifteen Social Movements / Review

Course Outline
Recommended Books
Highly Recommended:
Barry, B. (2005) Why Social Justice Matters (Polity Press: Cambridge) B
Harvey, D. (2009 [1973]) Social Justice and the City (University of Georgia Press: Athens, GA) B
Recommended:
Marcuse, P., Connolly, J., Novy, J., Olivio, I., Potter, J. and Steil, J. (eds) (2009) Searching for the Just
City (Routledge: New York)
Merrifield, A. and Swyngedouw, E. (eds) (1997) The Urbanization of Injustice (New York University
Press: New York) L
Smith, D. (1994) Geography and Social Justice (Blackwell: Oxford)

Part One An Introduction to Social Justice

Setting out a conceptual basis for our later geographical discussions, in this section of the course we
examine a variety of perspectives on social justice. In doing so, we cover debates from disciplines
including geography, political philosophy and economics. To begin our discussions of social justice, the
various possible elements of it are introduced. Following this, we trace out a number of positions on
social justice, including feminist, libertarian and Marxist perspectives.
The Concept of Social Justice
Required Reading
Barry, B. (2005) Why Social Justice Matters (Polity Press: Cambridge), pp. 3-26 B
Smith, D.M. (2000) Social justice revisited, Environment and Planning A, 32(7), 1149-1162 P
Sandel, M. (2009) Justice: What is the right thing to do? (Farrar, Straus and Giroux: New York), 3-30 B
Note: There are many good book-length treatments of the concept of social justice. Indeed, the
concept itself merits a whole semester course. However, you should use your reading to
supplement our introductory lectures and become familiar with the various mainstream
approaches to social justice.
Recommended Reading
Hayek, F. (1978) Law, Legislation and Liberty: The Mirage of Social Justice
Clayton, M. and Williams, A. (eds.) Social Justice (Blackwell: Oxford)
Capeheart, L. and Milovanovic, D. (2007) Social Justice: Theories, Issues, and Movements
(Rutgers University Press: New Brunswick, NJ)
Exploring Theoretical Approaches to Social Justice
Required Reading
Barry, B. (2005) Why Social Justice Matters (Polity Press: Cambridge), 27-36 B
Katznelson, I. (1997) Social Justice, Liberalism and the City: Considerations on David Harvey, John
Rawls and Karl Polanyi. In: Merrifield, A. and Swyngedouw, E. (eds) The Urbanization of
Injustice (New York University Press: New York), pp. 45-64 B
Smith, D.M. (1997) Back to the good life: Towards an enlarged conception of social justice, Environment
and Planning D Society and Space, 15(1), 19-35 P

Recommended Reading
Rawls, J. (2005) A Theory of Justice (Belknap Press: Cambridge, MA), 3-46
o On Rawls... Gutirrez D. (2005) John Rawls and policy formation, Review of Policy
Research 22, no.5, p. 737-742
Miller, D. (2001) Principles of Social Justice (Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA) L
Young, IM (1990) Justice and the Politics of Difference (Princeton University Press: Princeton,
NJ) L
Amin, A. and Graham, S. (1997) The ordinary city, Transactions of the Institute of British
Geographers, 22(4), 411-429 P
Feagin, J.R. (2001) Social justice and sociology: Agendas for the twenty first century, American
Sociological Review, 66(1), 1-20 P
Simpson, E. (1976) Socialist Justice, Ethics, 87(1) 1-17 P
Underpinning Social Justice
Required Reading
Applebaum, B. (2004) Social Justice Education, Moral Agency, and the Subject of Resistance,
Educational Theory, 54(1), 59-72 P
Barry, B. (2005) Why Social Justice Matters (Polity Press: Cambridge), 47-55 B
Lee, R. and Smith, D. (2004) Geographies of Morality and Moralities of Geography In: Lee, R. and
Smith. D. (eds) Geographies and Moralities: International Perspectives on Development, Justice
and Place (Blackwell: Oxford) 1-12 B
Valentine, G. (2003) Geography and ethics: in pursuit of social justice ethics and emotions in
geographies of health and disability research, Progress in Human Geography, 27(3), 375-380 P
Recommended Reading
Merrett, C. (2000) Teaching social justice: Reviving geography's neglected tradition, Journal of
Geography, 99(5), 207-218 P
Marshall, G. (1996) Was communism good for social justice?: A comparative analysis of the two
Germanies, British Journal of Sociology, 47(3), 397-420 P
Rose, N. (1996) The death of the social? Re-figuring the territory of government, Economy and
Society, 25(3), 327-356 P

Part Two - Urban Questions: Policing, Protest, Prison, Power, Public Space
In the second part of the course we turn our attention to the city and ask how the urban context generates
new social justice questions. We examine how urban thinking has given rise to various social justice
perspectives within geography, particularly focusing on the work of David Harvey and Henri Lefebvre.
Follow this we examine a number of social justice issues that are inherently connected to urbanism:
policing, protest, prison, power and public space. For each, we will examine the how an understanding of
social justice is necessary.
The Peculiarities of Urban Justice Questions
Required Reading
Harloe M. (2001) Social justice and the city: The new 'liberal formulation', International Journal of
Urban and Regional Research, 25(4), 889-897 P
Harvey, D. (2009[1973]) Revolutionary and counter-revolutionary theory in geography and the problem
of ghetto formation. In: Harvey, D. Social Justice and the City (University of Georgia Press:
Athens) 120-152 B
Recommended Reading

Proctor, J. (1998) Ethics in Geography: giving moral form to the geographical imagination, Area, 30(1),
8-18 P
Swyngedouw, E. And Heynen, N. (2003) Urban Political Ecology, Justice and the Politics of Scale,
Antipode, 35(5), 898-918 P
Smith, D. (1997) Geography and ethics: a moral turn? Progress in Human Geography, 21(4), 583-590 P
Policing
Required Reading
Fyfe, N. (1995) Law and order policy and the spaces of citizenship in contemporary Britain, Political
Geography, 14(2), 177-189 P
Herbert, S. (1996) The geopolitics of the police: Foucault, disciplinary power and the tactics of the Los
Angeles Police Department, Political Geography, 15(1), 47-59 P
Wacquant, L. (2008) The Militarization of Urban Marginality: Lessons from the Brazilian Metropolis,
International Political Sociology 1-2 (Winter), 56-74 P
Recommended Reading
Feld, B. (1973) Justice by Geography: Urban, Suburban, and Rural Variations in Juvenile Justice, The
Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 82(1), 156-210 P
Fyfe, N. (1991) The police, space and society: the geography of policing, Progress in Human Geography,
15(3), 249-267 L
Herbert, S. (1996) The Normative Ordering of Police Territoriality: Making and Marking Space with the
Los Angeles Police Department, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 86(3) 567582 P
Proudfoot, J. And McCann, E. (2008) At Street Level: Bureaucratic Practice in the Management of Urban
Neighborhood Change, Urban Geography, 29(4), 348-370 P
Protest
Required Reading
Berman, M. (1993) Justice/Just Rap: Rap and Social Justice in America. In: Merrifield, A. and
Swyngedouw, E. (eds) The Urbanization of Injustice (New York University Press: New York),
pp. 161-179 B
Swyngedouw, E. (2002) The strange respectability of the Situationist City in the society of the spectacle,
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 26(1), 153-165 P
Watts, M. (2001) 1968 and all that, Progress in Human Geography, 25(2), 157-188 P
Recommended Reading
Adams, P. (1996) Protest and the Scale Politics of Telecommunications, Political Geography,
15(5), 419-441 P
Boje, D. 2001. Carnivalesque resistance to global spectacle: a critical postmodern theory of
public administration, Administrative Theory & Praxis, 23(3) 431458
Jansen, S. (2001) The streets of Beograd. Urban space and protest identities in Serbia, Political
Geography, 20, 35-55 P
Martinez T (1997) Popular culture as oppositional culture: Rap as resistance, Sociological
Perspectives, 40(2), 265-286 P
McCann E (1999) Race, protest, and public space: Contextualizing Lefebvre in the US city,
Antipode, 31(2), 163- P
McFarlane, T. and Hay, I. (2003) The battle for Seattle: protest and popular geopolitics in The
Australian newspaper, Political Geography, 22, 211232 P
Mitchell, D. And Staeheli, L. 2005. Permitting Protest: Parsing the Fine Geography of Dissent in
America, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 29(4), 796-813 P

Missingham, B. (2002) The Village of the Poor Confronts the State: A Geography of Protest in
the Assembly of the Poor, Urban Studies, 39(9), 1647-1663 P

Prison
Required Reading
Peck, J. (2003) Geography and Public Policy: Mapping the Penal State, Progress in Human Geography,
27(2), 222-232 P
Wacquant, L. (2001) Deadly Symbiosis: When Ghetto and Prison Meet and Mesh, Punishment & Society,
3(1), 95-133 P
Recommended Reading
Anderson, E. (1999) Code of the Streets: Decency, Violence and the Moral Life of Inner Cities
(Norton: New York) L
Foucault, M. (1997) Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (Vintage: New York) L
Gilmore, R. (2007) Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing
California (Berkeley: University of California Press) L
Gregory, D. (2006) The black flag: Guantnamo Bay and the space of exception, Geografiska
Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, 88(4), 405-427 P
Manza, J. and Uggen, C. (2007) Looked Out: Felon Disenfranchisement and American
Democracy (New York: Oxford University Press) L
Pager, D. (2007) Marked: Race, Crime, and Finding Work in an Era of Mass Incarceration
(University of Chicago Press: Chicago) L
Pettit, B. And Western, B. (2004) Mass Imprisonment and the Life Course: Race and Class
Inequality in U.S. Incarceration, American Sociological Review, 69(2), 151-169 P
Tonry, M. (1996) Malign Neglect: Race, Crime and Punishment in America (Oxford
University Press: Oxford) L
Venkatesh, S. (2007) Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press) L
Wacquant, L. (2001) The Penalisation of Poverty and the rise of Neo-Liberalism, European
Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, 9(4), 401-412 P
Power and Cities
Required Reading
Allen, J. (2006) Ambient Power: Berlins Potsdamer Platz and the seductive logic of public spaces,
Urban Studies, 43(2), 441-455 P
Davis, M. (1990) City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles (London: Vintage), 99-150 B
Recommended Reading
Allen, J. (2003) Lost Geographies of Power (Blackwell: Oxford) L
Christopherson, S. (1994) The fortress city: privatized spaces, consumer citizenship, in: A. Amin (ed.)
Post-Fordism: A Reader. (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers), 409-427 L
Crampton, J. And Elden, S. (eds) (2007) Space, Knowledge and Power: Foucault and Geography
(Ashgate: Aldershot) L
Goss, J. (1993) The "Magic of the Mall": An Analysis of Form, Function, and Meaning in the
Contemporary Retail Built Environment, Annals of the Association of American Geographers,
83(1), 18-47 P
Slater, D. (2002) Other domains of democratic theory: space, power, and the politics of democratization,
Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 20(3), 255-276 P

Public Space
Required Reading
Atkinson, R. (2003) Domestication by cappuccino or a revenge on urban space? Control and
empowerment in the management of public spaces, Urban Studies, 40(9), 18291843 P
Crawford, M. (1992) The world in a shopping mall, in: Sorkin, M. (ed.) Variations on a Theme Park: The
New American City and the End of Public Space (New York: Hill and Wang), 3-30 P
Freeman, J. (2008) Great, Good, and Divided: The Politics of Public Space in Rio de Janeiro, Journal of
Urban Affairs, 30(5), 529-556 P
Recommended Reading
Fyfe, N. (Ed.) (1998) Images of the Street: Planning, Identity and Control in Public
Space. (London: Routledge) L
Fyfe, N. and Bannister, J. (1998) The eyes upon the street: closed-circuit television surveillance
and the city, in: Fyfe, N. (Ed.) Images of the Street: Planning, Identity and Control in Public
Space (London: Routledge) 254-267 L
Hayden, D. (2005) Building the American Way: Public Subsidy, Private Space. In: Low, S. and
Smith, N. (eds) The Politics of Public Space (Routledge: London), pp. 35-48 L
Kohn, M. (2001) The mauling of public space, Dissent, Spring, pp. 7177 P
Koskela, H. (2000) The gaze without eyes: video-surveillance and the changing nature of urban
space, Progress in Human Geography, 24(2), 243265 P
Mitchell, D. (1995) The end of public space? Peoples park, definitions of the public, and
democracy, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 85(1), 108133 P
Sennett, R. (1974) The Fall of Public Man (New York: Norton) L

Part Three - Case Studies

In this part of the class, we examine a number of pressing, contemporary urban social problems and
investigate each as a social justice issue. We will utilise lectures, discussions and film viewings to frame
each problem/issue as a social justice concern.
Segregation and the Fight for Justice
Required Reading
Peach, C. (1996) Good segregation, bad segregation, Planning Perspectives, 11, 379-398
Tyner, J. (2006) Defend the Ghetto: Space and the Urban Politics of the Black Panther Party, Annals of
the Association of American Geographers, 96(1), 105-118
Wacquant L (1999) Urban marginality in the coming millennium, Urban Studies, 36(10), 1639-1647
Recommended Reading
Hilfiker, D. (2002) Urban Injustice: How Ghettos Happen (Seven Stories Press: New York), 1-44
L
Jargowsky PA (1996) Take the money and run: Economic segregation in US metropolitan areas,
American Sociological Review, 61(6), 984-998 P
Levernier W, Partridge MD, Rickman DS (1998) Differences in metropolitan and
nonmetropolitan US family income inequality: A cross-county comparison, Journal of Urban
Economics, 44(2), 272-290 P
Morgan DR, Mareschal P (1999) Central-city/suburban inequality and metropolitan political
fragmentation, Urban Affairs Review, 34(4), 578-595 P
Samers M (2002) Immigration and the global city hypothesis: Towards an alternative research
agenda, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 26(2), 389 P

10

Young, I.M. (1999) Residential segregation and differentiated citizenship, Citizenship Studies,
3(2), p. 237-252 L

The Capitalist City and (In)Justice

Required Reading
Harvey, (2009[1973]) Social Justice and the City (University of Georgia Press: Athens, GA), 120-194,
195-239 B
Scott, A. (2006) The Changing Global Geography of Low-Technology, Labor-Intensive Industry:
Clothing, Footwear, and Furniture, World Development, 34(9), 1517-1536 P
Recommended Reading
Burawoy, M. (1982) Manufacturing Consent: Changes in the Labor Process Under Monopoly
Capitalism (University of Chicago Press: Chicago), pp. 77-94 L
Dunford, M. and Perrons, D (1994) Regional inequality, regimes of accumulation and economic
development, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 19, 2, 163-182 P
Hamnett, C (1994) Social polarisation in global cities: theory and evidence, Urban Studies, 31,
401-424 P
Harvey, D. (1996) Class Relations, Social Justice, and the Political Geography of Difference, In:
Justice, Nature and the Geography of Difference (Blackwell: Oxford), 334-365 L
Herod, A. (2001) Labor Geographies: Workers and the Landscapes of Capitalism (Guilford
Press: New York), pp. 50-69 L
Kloosterman, R.C (1994) The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism? The Welfare State and the
Post-Industrial Trajectory in the Netherlands after 1980, West European Politics, 17, 4, 166-89 P
Cole, M. (2003) Might it be in the practice that it fails to succeed? A Marxist critique of claims
for postmodernism and poststructuralism as forces for social change and social justice, British
Journal of Sociology of Education, 24(4), 487-500 P
Basu D. and Werbner, P. (2001) Bootstrap capitalism and the culture industries: a critique of
invidious comparisons in the study of ethnic entrepreneurship, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 24(2),
236-262 P
Armbruster-Sandoval, R. (2005) Workers of the world unite? The contemporary anti-sweatshop
movement and the struggle for social justice in the Americas, Work and Occupations, 32(4), 464485 P
The (Post)Socialist City and (In)Justice
Required Reading
Harvey, D. (2000) Spaces of Hope (University of California Press: Berkeley, CA) pp. 257-281 L
Fisher, J. (1962) Planning the City of Socialist Man, Journal of the American Planning Association,
28(4), 251-265 P
Marcuse, P. (1991) Missing Marx: A Personal and Political Journal of a Year in East Germany, 19891990 (Monthly Review Press: New York), pp. 53-61, 103-116, 229-238 B
Stenning, A. (2005) Where is the Post-socialist Working Class? Working-Class Lives in the Spaces of
(Post-)Socialism, Sociology, 39(5), 983-999 P
Recommended Reading
Argenbright, R. (1999) Remaking Moscow: New Places, New Selves, Geographical Review,
89(1), 1-22 P
Smith, D. M. (1994) 'Social Justice and the Post-Socialist City', Urban Geography, 15(7), 612627 P
French, R and Hamilton, F. (1979) Is There a Socialist City? In: French, R. and Hamilton, F.
(eds.) The Socialist City: Spatial Structure and Urban Policy (John Wiley: New York) L

11

Hausladen, G. (1987) Planning the Development of the Socialist City: the Case of Dubna New
Town, Geoforum, 18(1), 103-115 P
French, A. (1995) Plans, pragmatism and people: the legacy of Soviet planning for today's cities
(University of Pittsburgh Press: Pittsburgh) L
Hill, F. (2003) The Siberian Curse: How Communist Planners Left Russia Out in the Cold
(Brookings Institution Press: New York) L
Golubchikov, O. (2004) Urban planning in Russia: towards the market, European Planning
Studies, 12(2), 229-247 P
Smith, D.M. (1996) The Socialist City, In: Andrusz, G., Harloe, M. and Szelenyi, I. (eds) Cities
After Socialism: Urban and Regional Change and Conflict in Post-Socialist Societies (Blackwell:
Oxford), 70-99 L

Gentrification and the Fight for Place

Required Reading
Davidson, M (2009) Displacement, Space/Place and Dwelling: placing gentrification debate, Ethics,
Place and Environment, 12(2), 219-234 P
Newman, K. And Wyly, E. (2006) The Right to Stay Put, Revisited: Gentrification and Resistance to
Displacement in New York City, Urban Studies, 43(1), 2357 P
Smith, N. (1979) Toward a theory of gentrification: a back to the city movement by capital not people,
Journal of the American Planning Association, 45(October), 538548 P
Recommended Reading
Atkinson, R. (2003a) Misunderstood Saviour or Vengeful Wrecker? The Many Meanings and
Problems of Gentrification. Urban Studies, 40(12), 23432350. P
Davidson, M. and Lees, L. (2005) New-build gentrification and Londons riverside renaissance,
Environment and Planning A, 37(7), 11651190
Fraser, J. (2004) Beyond Gentrification: Mobilizing Communities and Claiming Space. Urban
Geography, 25(5), 437-457 P
Freeman, L. and Braconi, F. (2004) Gentrification and Displacement in New York City. Journal
of the American Planning Association, 70(1), 39-52 P
Marcuse, P. (1986) Abandonment, gentrification and displacement: the linkages in New York
City. In: N. Smith and P. Williams eds. Gentrification of the City. London: Unwin Hyman, 153177 L
Peck (2005) Struggling with the Creative Class, International Journal of Urban and Regional
Research. P
Smith, N. (1996) Is Gentrification a Dirty Word? In: The New Urban Frontier: Gentrification and
the Revanchist City (Routledge: London), pp.30-50 L

Contemporary Housing Questions?

Required Reading
Hartman, C. (2006) The Case for the Right to Housing, In: Bratt, R., Stone, M. and Hartman, C. (eds) A
Right to Housing: Foundation for a New Social Agenda (Temple University Press: Philadelphia,
PA), pp. 177-192 B
Strauss, K. (2009) Accumulation and Dispossession: Lifting the Veil on the Subprime Mortgage Crisis,
Antipode, 41(1), 10-14 P
Wyly, E., Moos, M., Foxcroft, H. and Kabahizi, E. (2008) Subprime Mortgage Segmentation in the
American Urban System, Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie, 99(1), 3-23 P

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Recommended Reading
Aalbers, M. (2008) The Financialization of Home and the Mortgage Market Crisis, Competition
and Change, 12(2), 148-166 P
Crump J (2002) Deconcentration by demolition: public housing, poverty, and urban policy,
Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 20(5), 581-596 P
Engels, F. (1872) The Housing Question [available online]
Fainstein, S. (2001) Competitiveness, cohesion, and governance: Their implications for social
justice, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 25(4), 884-888 P
Gotham, K. (2009) Creating Liquidity out of Spatial Fixity: The Secondary Circuit of Capital and
the Subprime Mortgage Crisis, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 33(2),
355-371 P
Haylett, C. (2003) Culture, class and urban policy: Reconsidering equality, Antipode, 35(1), 5573 P
Sidaway, J. (2008) Subprime crisis: American crisis or human crisis? Environment and Planning
D,26(2), 195-8 P
Emancipatory City: Redistribution and Recognition
Required Reading
Fainstein, S. (2005) Cities and Diversity: Should We Want It? Can We Plan For It? Urban Affairs
Review, 41(1), 3-19 P
Hayden, D. (1980) What Would a Non-Sexist City Be Like? Speculations on Housing, Urban Design, and
Human Work, Signs, 5(3), 170-187 P
Knopp, L. (1994) Social Justice, Sexuality and the City, Urban Geography, 15(7), 644-660 P
Recommended Reading
Fraser, N. (1999) Social Justice in the Age of Identity Politics: Redistribution, Recognition and
Participation, In: L. Ray and A. Sayer (eds.) Culture and Economy After the Cultural Turn (Sage:
London), pp. 25-52 L
Hubbard, P. (1998) Sexuality, Immortality, and the City: Red-Light Districts and the
Marginalisation of Female Street Prostitutes, Gender, Place and Culture, 5(1), p. 55-72 P
Hubbard P (2004) Revenge and injustice in the neoliberal city: Uncovering masculinist agendas,
Antipode, 36(4), 665-686 P
Valentine, G. (1996) (Re) negotiating the Heterosexual Street: Lesbian Productions of Space. In:
Duncan, N. (ed) Body Space: Destablizing Geographies of Gender and Sexuality L
Young, I. (1990) Democracy and Justice, In: Inclusion and Democracy (Oxford University Press:
Oxford), 16-36 L

Part Four Movements for Justice

In the final part of the class we survey those current urban social movements that are embracing a social
justice agenda. We ask what understanding of social justice they are mobilizing and the
benefits/limitations of them.
Required Reading
Marcuse, P. (2009) From critical urban theory to the right to the city, City: analysis of urban trends,
culture, theory, policy, action, 13(2), 185-197 P
Wills, J. (2008) Making class politics possible: Organizing contract cleaners in London, International
Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 32(2), 305-24 P
Recommended Reading

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Gilbert M (2001) From the "walk for adequate welfare" to the 'march for our lives": Welfare
rights organizing in the 1960s and 1990s, Urban Geography, 22(5), 440-456 L
Pinder, D. (2005) Visions of the City: Utopianism, Power and Politics in Twentieth-Century
Urbanism (Routledge: New York) L
Pinder, D. (2000) 'Old Paris is no more': Geographies of spectacle and anti-spectacle, Antipode,
32(4), 357-386 P
Purcell M (2003) Citizenship and the right to the global city: Reimagining the capitalist world
order, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 27(3), 564- P
Schmelzkopf K (2002) Incommensurability, land use, and the right to space: Community gardens
in New York City, Urban Geography, 23(4), 323-343 P
Smith S (1997) Beyond geography's visible worlds: a cultural politics of music, Progress in
Human Geography, 21(4), 502-529 P
Adams S. and Neumark D (2005) Living wage effects: New and improved evidence, Economic
Development Quarterly, 19(1), 80-102 P
Cummings SL (2001) Community economic development as progressive politics: Toward a
grassroots movement for economic justice, Stanford Law Review, 54 (3), 399-493 P

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