At the end of the Summer School, you will be able to:
IDENTIFY the mechanisms through which spatial injustice and social exclusion are produced and reproduced in urban environments, including displacement, unequal access to public goods, exclusion from decision-making, environmental inequality, and the uneven distribution of opportunities and risks.
ANALYSE an urban district using multiple forms of spatial knowledge, including quantitative data, maps, policy documents, historical evidence, resident testimony, and community organising practices.
EXPLAIN how spatial planning, governance arrangements, and democratic institutions shape urban development outcomes, and how planning decisions can either reinforce or challenge spatial injustice.
EVALUATE the social, economic, environmental, and political implications of planning and design interventions, paying particular attention to their effects on vulnerable and historically marginalised groups.
DEVELOP a Justice-Oriented Spatial Strategy: a spatially grounded and evidence-based strategy that addresses a specific injustice through planning instruments, public investment, governance arrangements, or participatory mechanisms.
INTEGRATE principles of spatial justice, participation, and social sustainability into urban planning and design proposals, recognising the importance of social infrastructure, community capacity, inclusion, and democratic engagement.
CONNECT spatial design decisions to broader systems of governance, demonstrating an understanding of how public, private, and civic actors shape urban development and how power can be negotiated, contested, or redistributed.
REFLECT CRITICALLY on your own positionality as planners and designers, including the assumptions embedded in your methods, the limits of your knowledge, and the ethical responsibilities involved in proposing change in communities that are not your own.
You should be able to answer the following questions:
Learning Outcome
What injustice is being addressed?
Identify specific forms of spatial injustice
Through what mechanism does it operate?
Explain planning, governance and institutional mechanisms
Who gains and who loses?
Evaluate distributional consequences
Which planning instrument is used?
Apply specific tools of spatial planning
What institutional conditions are needed?
Explain governance and institutional structures
How are public, private and civic actors involved?
Assess roles of public, private and civic actors
How are social, economic and environmental sustainability addressed?
Integrate the three dimensions of sustainability
What values underlie the proposition?
Reflect critically on values and positionality
How are excluded groups considered?
Design proposals responsive to marginalised groups
How is the proposition grounded in evidence?
Analyse urban districts using multiple forms of knowledge