This “planning for social justice” article written by Uitermark, J. & Nicholls, W and it is published in 2015. They written this article not only including their thoughts but also referring many other books, articles which write about social justice. According to the article the Marxist tradition heavily emphasises the role of planning in furthering social justice. Also, this article represents the work of John Rawls (justice as equality) is shown to align with modernist planning theory, while the work of Robert Nozick (justice as liberty) is shown to align with neoliberalism. Awareness of such alignment is valuable, as it helps illuminate what might be called the ‘end goal’ of each planning approach, articulating the kind of society each seeks to create. Above titles will further discuss with in below paragraphs.
According to the article social justice mean “ensuring that all communities are treated fairly and are given equal opportunity to participate in the planning and decision-making process. Social justice means everyone, regardless of race, culture, ability, or income, shares in the benefits of planning and development”. Ensuring social equity does not necessarily guarantee equality – but it does mean giving every community an equal voice. Social equity is providing all residents with access to affordable and safe housing, quality jobs, adequate infrastructure, and quality education. It means allowing children and families of all races, abilities, and income levels to live in the best possible environment.
Planning and Social justice
There are two leading paradigms that focus on how planning can further social justice. These are Marxism and the sustainable cities tradition, both of which have social justice at their cores. The key idea in Marxist planning is that, planning cannot be separated from society; planning is determined by the economic structure of a society and works to further the dominant economic paradigm, which in most cases, is capitalism (Allmendinger, 2002, p. 81). Environmental justice also part of planning.
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The sustainable cities movement is a prime example of this. Campbell (1996, p. 297) frames this movement as being about balancing the three conflicting priorities planners face: economy, environment and equity. He argues that, generally, a planner focussing on one aspect would ignore the others or see them as competition; for instance, an environmental planner would see economic development as damaging to the environment and would likely focus on environmental preservation at the expense of social equity and economic development (Campbell, 1996, p. 298). This sustainable development paradigm is thus inherently interested in furthering social justice.
The argument that sustainability cannot exist without equity and social considerations means that for a city or community to be sustainable it must emphasise social justice. Furthermore, studying the article there can identify this social justice really influenced to the town and country planning. Following paragraph will furthermore discuss about what are the areas that social justice covers in the town and country planning.
Urban Form
The built environment causes many of the inequities for people with disabilities. Physical standards for buildings, sidewalks, streets, and public areas can inadvertently restrict the activities and the quality of life of many members of the community. So, solutions to that stuff the article presents “Universal Design” – the design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design.
Transportation
Transportation systems can have a significant effect on the quality of life for a region’s residents by determining access to housing, jobs, services, and recreational opportunities. Social equity means investing in transportation systems that provide urban residents with opportunities to work, shop, study, invest, and play in the region. Provide equitable and accessible transportation services for all residents, regardless of income, age, or ability are the expectations from social justice.
Housing
Housing is one of the most important factors in our residents’ quality of life. Promoting equity in the region means building healthy, mixed-income neighbourhoods with enough affordable housing. So is this social justice in housing is provide a variety of affordable and quality smart growth housing choices for people of all income levels and abilities throughout the region.
Public Facilities
The most pressing social equity and environmental justice issue regarding public facilities is the disproportionate siting of potentially polluting facilities in low income and minority communities. These types of facilities can include, but are not limited to, landfills, hazardous waste collection facilities, power plants and transmission lines. So, actions in these public facilities are locate energy facilities, such as power plants or transmission lines, so that lower income and minority communities are not disproportionately negatively affected. Site waste disposal and management facilities in a manner that protects public health and safety and does not disproportionately negatively affect lower income and minority communities.
After applying these key topics to the Midigama tsunami resettlement in their urban form can identify built in due to the social justice. Because this settlement was a planned one. About considering the transportation this settlement not provide equitable accessible transportation services for all residents of income, age. There was not even public transportation system inside of the settlement. Considering the housing condition all houses are same design so in there has social justice.
But some villages do not have land tenure ship and some villages have different size of lands, so due to that reasons social justice do not continue with that part. Considering the public facilities, locate energy facilities such as power plants and transmission lines were provided to the villages as equally and the waste disposal and management facilities. But disposal and management do not use properly. As a planned project Midigama Turkey was village built basically considering the social justice.
