Reconceptualizing justice in planning: A recognition-theoretical approach to diversity-sensitive urbanism

Application summary

Justice has been a highly debated topic in urban planning research in the increasingly socially and culturally diverse cities. Especially the communicative theory of planning – the hegemonic planning paradigm of the recent decades – has drawn on traditional liberal theories on justice, such as Habermas’s theory. Liberal theories have abstained from discussing differences between people – for instance, their differing physical and mental capabilities and cultural backgrounds. Instead, they have focused on what all people are expected to share – for instance, certain universalizable rights or appreciative attitude towards certain basic goods. Recently, however, planning scholars have called for alternative, “thicker” conceptualizations of justice that would be helpful in recognizing the particularity of places and the diversity of local publics. The main critics of communicative planning theory’s conception of justice – Just City theorists – have not been helpful in answering to this call. They have only turned their attention to from planning processes to the distributive outcomes of planning, but in so doing, they have also resorted to liberal theories, especially Rawls’s theory. The "Reconceptualizing justice in planning" project builds a theory that combines universalist and particularity-oriented approaches as well as procedural and substantive approaches to justice in planning. In so doing, the team utilizes and develops further philosophical theory of recognition. Our team also maps out the currently existing approaches to justice in Finnish urban planning practice through case studies utilizing ethnographic approaches. Furthermore, drawing together the results of philosophical, planning-theoretical and ethnographic studies, the project presents suggestions as to how the Finnish planners and planning organizations could beneficially broaden their existing approaches to justice with recognition-theoretical approach.