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Spatial justice: Where/when it all

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Abel Albet
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 CITY, VOL. 15, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2011

Spatial justice
Where/when it all comes together 1

Abel Albet

D
avid Clarke concludes his review of necessary steps leading inexorably to a logic.
City:
10.1080/13604813.2011.539012
CCIT_A_539012.sgm
1360-4813
Original
Taylor
102011
15
February
abel.albet@uab.es
AbelAlbet
00000Analysis
and
&Article
2009
Francis
(print)/1470-3629
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of Urban Trends
(online)

Postmetropolis by claiming that, after
reading the book, ‘one cannot but
eagerly await the fourth part of Soja’s trilogy’
(2003, p. 331). Obviously, Clarke’s statement
Downloaded by [University of Sydney] at 01:35 16 March 2013
Using Soja’s own words, it can be argued that
in spatial justice ‘it all comes together’.
Therefore, it becomes clear now that the
emphasis on spatialization was not due to the

combines some degree of admiration with a simple determination of a misunderstood

pinch of pungent irony. Admiration because,
indeed, the avidity with which one reads
Soja’s texts is due to his suggestive and
vibrating reasoning, rich in ideas that never
leave you indifferent, whether you agree with
them or not. And a pinch of irony because, if
three have been (until now) Soja’s essential
books (Postmodern Geographies, Thirdspace
and Postmetropolis) and the number three
seems to be a constant reference in his work
(thirdspace, trialectics, thirding), Clarke’s
statement would imply that any new text by
Soja cannot be understood or interpreted (or
even seen as something really new) outside of
the trilogy for which he has become known
and renowned.
Clarke’s claim is a bit of a prophecy too:
Seeking Spatial Justice is, indeed, that ‘fourth
part’, because it contains, summarizes and
incorporates the preceding trilogy, as well as
Soja’s usual predilections and propensities:
Lefebvre, the third space, spatial causality,
urban synekism, LA as source of inspiration,
the ‘LA School’, etc. In this sense, some of
Soja’s critics will find it easy to reinforce
their position by saying: ‘Seeking Spatial
Justice: just more of the same’.
However, it should be noted that Seeking
Spatial Justice synthesizes Soja’s previous
proposals not in order to reiterate, revise or
justify them (he has already done enough of
that in his prior texts) but with the intention
of proving that those proposals were far from
being in vain: they constituted firm and
geographer; that the inspiration found in
Lefebvre was something different from a
blind and compulsive admiration for the
Master; that Los Angeles was not an easy and
lazy case study for someone who doesn’t
undertake fieldwork and just draws on what
he sees in his neighborhood. For Soja it
seems evident that spatial justice is neither a
capricious invention nor a hunch, not even
the next logo, but the logical consequence of
all his previous work. Furthermore, spatial
justice is also a concept as powerful and
subversive for the social sciences as has been
his commitment to the reassertion of space in
social theory or his theorization of a spatial
trialectics as a critical interpretative frame-
work of territory and society.
Seeking Spatial Justice is a clear and direct
text and, as usual in Soja, precisely and
preciously written. But this time with an
almost divulgative tone that surprises the
reader, who is used to Soja’s neologisms,
footnote elaborations, language twists and
turns, and the spirals of quotations.
However, still present is his conviction that it
is not necessary to write hundreds of pages in
order to justify certain ideas and that the
inspiration that some texts may provide can
lead to equally powerful and significant
argumentations (Benach and Albet, 2010).
In this sense, Chapter 3, entitled ‘Building
a Spatial Theory of Justice’, is simply
outstanding: a direct and smart condensation
of ideas allows the reader to easily understand

ISSN 1360-4813 print/ISSN 1470-3629 online/11/010069-04 © 2011 Taylor & Francis

DOI: 10.1080/13604813.2011.539012
 70 CITY VOL. 15, NO. 1
not only Soja’s prior contributions, but also
those of Lefebvre or Foucault, masterfully
appropriated, interpreted and projected by
the author. Soja has learned from the remarks
received and he avoids falling into the provo-
cations or black holes that earlier in his career
brought him significant criticisms: he is care-
ful with the claims he makes and with
acknowledging his sources; he recognizes,
values and incorporates the contributions
made, for instance, by the feminist and post-
colonial debates; he skillfully incorporates
scales into his discourse (body, place, global,
even global warming!); he explicitly acknowl-
Downloaded by [University of Sydney] at 01:35 16 March 2013
edges Harvey’s contributions and, at the same
time, he severely reproaches him for insisting
on the idea that it is social injustices that
produce spatial inequalities, and for maintain-
ing his view of the built environment as a
simple container (following the most recalci-
trant Marxism). There are different nods to
Mustafa Dikeç, Don Mitchell and others, but
never missing his personal gaze (his ‘I-eye’,
according to Derek Gregory).
Soja’s theorization of spatial justice is rela-
tively short, arguing that this is a topic that
(almost) nobody has worked on before. He
exposes the few precedents published in the
English-speaking world, as well as the gene-
alogy of the concept of justice and its rela-
tionship with equity. He examines why
differences in location and distribution of,
for instance, the equipments (and, therefore,
the spatial agents behind) can explain to a
large extent the so-called unequal develop-
ment, social inequalities and economic
imbalances.
Soja leaves out other referents from differ-
ent scientific contexts: in 1981 Alain
Reynaud had already pointed out that ‘the
concept of socio-economic class shouldn’t
hide the notion of socio-spatial class because
spatial differentiation generates inequalities
in the social status of individuals and groups’
(p. 32). In 1992 Roger Brunet et al. included
the term ‘spatial justice’ in their critical
dictionary, with a meaning very close to
Soja’s. Francesco Indovina’s concept of the
‘just city’ (1995) and Oriol Nel·lo’s notion of
‘territorial distributive justice’ (2001) are not
very far away either. Soja rejects the word
‘territorial’ associated to justice but he
doesn’t take into account that in languages
(and societies) like French, Spanish, Italian or
Catalan, ‘territory’ contains a very strong
and unequivocal socio-political and identi-
tarian component that is absent in English
and that is even stronger than in ‘space’ or
‘spatial’. To resist accepting the validity of
‘territorial justice’ (in parallel, at least, with
that of ‘spatial justice’) on the basis of a ‘false
friend’ translation implies limiting the scope
of the concept and underestimates some
significant sources and traditions.
Another issue may feed Soja’s usual
detractors: ‘Los Angeles again, always Los
Angeles’. Soja has extensively explained that,
without diminishing the significance of other
cities, for him Los Angeles is the vanguard
that epitomizes the characteristic transforma-
tions of the postmodern metropolis. Maybe
what is remarkable now is that in Los
Angeles, defined by its placelessness and
individualism, a certain sense of community
with a strong identitarian and territorial
component seems finally to emerge, mainly
thanks to the immigrant population. The
weakness of some of the examples Soja uses
to illustrate spatial justice shows clearly that,
as usual, Soja is more effective in the realm of
theory than in that of praxis. Some of the
cases provided give very few clues as to how
to achieve spatial justice, but they open the
way to go more deeply into the concept on a
theoretical and, even more, practical level.
Even accepting the exemplarity of Los
Angeles, it is still difficult to assume that
there aren’t or haven’t been other places and
other struggles that refer to the right to the
city and to spatial justice as defined by Soja.
Maybe the problem lies in using as examples
only ‘judicialized’ cases (what seems to be a
typically North American evaluation of real-
ity): it would appear that the struggle for the
right to the city and the vindication of spatial
justice only has enough strength when it has
passed the test of a judicial process (with the
resulting media coverage) … forgetting that

there are other struggles, movements and
actions that have prioritized spatiality,
consciously or not. They may be less
complex and ambitious but are, at least,
equally or even more significant and exem-
plary. Many (won and lost) battles for spatial
justice are not settled in court but on a day-
to-day basis (the bargaining of some neigh-
bors with the city council, a piece of graffiti,
a painted banner, a protest party …). And
many don’t take place under the umbrella of
an extensive, more or less institutionalized,
social organization: don’t forget the neigh-
borhood fights under the Greek and Spanish
Downloaded by [University of Sydney] at 01:35 16 March 2013
dictatorships in the 1970s, the movement(s)
for a decent home in Italy, the last genera-
tions of NIMBY collectivities, etc.
Even more: the expression (and the achieve-
ment) of spatial justice doesn’t necessarily
have to be the result of a confrontation or
struggle ‘from below’ (as shown in Leibler and
Musset’s essay (2010), that, curiously enough,
is founded on the same type of conceptualiza-
tion as Soja’s and also uses a practical example
based on the spatializing potential of public
transport). Thus, to mention examples that
Soja knows well: the transformations of
popular districts in Amsterdam, Hamburg,
Barcelona or Stockholm.
Similarly, it is important to notice the role
Soja attributes to the university (more specif-
ically, to the UCLA experience and, within
it, the GSAUP):2 a dialectical, balanced (and
idealized?) relationship between Main Street
and Academia that would demonstrate not
only the applicability of his theory but also
the answer to the spatial challenges posed by
society. Once again, besides UCLA there are
other examples in other parts of the planet
that could illustrate a similar academic
commitment and non-arrogant relationship
with the citizenry: the Open University, the
case of Manchester, the Nomadic University,
Barcelona’s Forum de la Ribera, to mention
just a few (Zusman, 2004). Soja insinuates
that to a certain extent the Los Angeles expe-
rience has already been overcome: in the time
to come, with universities more and more
mercantilized and faculty members yielding
ALBET: SPATIAL JUSTICE 71
to competitive pressures, experiences like the
ones brought up by Soja will be more rare
(and at the same time more necessary).
Probably the idea was already there, but the
concept didn’t exist yet. In this sense, it should
be acknowledged that Soja’s concept of
‘spatial justice’ is extremely powerful and
thought-provoking, and even more so when it
is understood and accepted that he attributes
to this concept a genealogy that includes the
Lefebvrian right to the city, the urban
synekism or the urban social movements, to
mention just a few steps. This is an easy to
grasp concept, expressed through an over-
whelming logic. Having, and therefore, using
that concept in the frame of the social sciences
in the way proposed by Soja can contribute in
a decisive way to channel both the theoretical
orientation and the practical implementation,
as well as become the guideline for daily strug-
gle. As it has happened to Soja before, it may
occur that the most skeptical voices may raise
from Geography, viewing ‘spatial justice’ as a
fear: fear about ‘the last novelty’; fear of
attributing a new determinism to space; fear
about what poses a challenge, not only to
Geography’s possibilities and potentialities,
but also to its social and public commitments.
As it has happened to Soja before, the concept
may be widely and favorably welcomed by
other social sciences: spatiality definitively
turned into a key component, a generator of
social transformation.
If it took 30 years to recognize Lefebvre’s
contributions and to spread his concept of the
‘right to the city’, let’s hope that we don’t
have to wait another 30 years for Soja’s notion
of spatial justice to become widespread.
Right now, it is a stimulus and a challenge to
the reader’s mind to open itself to new gazes
and conceptualizations, more critical and
committed, more spatial and spatialized.
Notes
1
1
Translated from the Spanish by Maria Prado
Ballarin.
2
2
Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Planning.
 72 CITY VOL. 15, NO. 1

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la justicia espacial? El caso del Metrocable y de la Bellaterra, Spain. Email: abel.albet@ uab.cat