Social Justice as a Guide to Planning Theory and Practice: Analyzing the Portuguese Planning System

Ricardo Cardoso and Isabel Breda‐vázquez

International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 2007, vol. 31, issue 2, 384-400

Abstract: Abstract The first utilizations of social justice theory as a guide to planning theory and practice were founded on David Harvey's attempt to incorporate issues of redistributive justice into geographical methods of analysis. Later conceptualizations utilize Iris Marion Young's view of social justice as an institutional condition that enables participation and overcomes oppression and domination through the achievement of self‐development and self‐determination. These two conceptual paths create a constructive argumentative tension that should underlie contemporary spatial planning in democratic societies. This means that, in order to contribute to more socially just urban societies, planning needs to be focused not only on patterns of distribution, but also on the relational social structures and institutional contexts in which these come about. Comprehensive and functionalist, mainstream planning in Portugal is unmistakably situated within the modernist planning project. We argue that the normative disposition of the identified argumentative tension undermines the theoretical capacity of modernist practices to achieve socially just territories. The aim of this article is to study the validity of this argument by analyzing the Portuguese planning system against a twofold set of social justice criteria. Résumé Les premiers recours à la justice sociale comme guide en matière de théorie et pratique de l’aménagement urbain s’appuyaient sur la tentative de David Harvey d’intégrer des aspects de justice redistributive dans les méthodes d’analyse géographiques. Plus tard, d’autres conceptions se serviront de la perspective d’Iris Marion Young sur la justice sociale comme condition institutionnelle permettant la participation tout en surmontant oppression et domination grâce au développement personnel et à l’autodétermination. Ces deux voies conceptuelles créent une tension argumentaire constructive qui devrait sous‐tendre l’aménagement spatial contemporain dans les sociétés démocratiques. Autrement dit, pour contribuer à des sociétés urbaines plus justes socialement, l’aménagement doit s’attacher, non seulement aux schémas de distribution, mais aussi aux structures sociales relationnelles et cadres institutionnels dans lesquels ses schémas opèrent. L’aménagement urbain portugais, conventionnel, général et fonctionnaliste, se situe immanquablement dans un projet d’urbanisation moderniste. Selon nous, la nature normative de la tension argumentaire établie entrave la capacité théorique des pratiques modernistes à aboutir à des territoires justes au plan social. L’article étudie la validité de cet argument en analysant le système d’aménagement urbain portugais en fonction de deux gammes de critères de justice sociale.

Date: 2007
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