This book outlines an interdisciplinary normative framework that makes sense of the historical transformation of cities and helps to assess contemporary urban conditions and policies for the built environment. This normative framework is embedded in what the editor and authors have termed 'urban justice'. As is widely acknowledged, the urban condition has become the inescapable horizon of modern life. Urban relations now permeate the lives of the majority of the world's population. Even if urbanization as a global process seems to have reached its zenith, there is no end in sight to the growth of cities. This is a fact that political theory must come to terms with when debating justice. To address this, this book is divided into three sections, each dealing with the spatial dimension of social agency, normative ideas about inclusive urban design, and contemporary processes that threaten to erode the urban fabric. In doing so, it helps one to normatively evaluate the spatial materialization of social relations in the city, so the view of urban habitat as a shared good becomes prominent. This book is of interest to scholars of urban studies, social sciences, political theory, and social philosophy, as well as those interested in contemporary urban processes in general.
Introduction.- Part I Urban Space and Social Agency.
Chapter 1 Outlines for a Theory of Urban Justice.
Chapter 2 Fragmented Cities: A Socio-Spatial Approach to Urban Discrimination.
Chapter 3 Urban (In)Justice and Migrants with Precarious Legal Status. Between Sanctuary Practices and Internal Borders in the City.
Chapter 4 City, Public Space and Political Action.- Part II The Good City.
Chapter 5 The Just City and the Common Good in the Western Tradition.
Chapter 6 Urban Justice and Urban Practice: Opportunities and Challenges. Madrid as a Reference.
Chapter 7 Cities vs States. Scales of Government and Governance.- Part III Cities in Distress.
Chapter 8 Urban Growth and Ecological Justice: A Tragedy of the Commons?.
Chapter 9 Touristocracy: When Tourism Rules the City.- Urbicide. Warfare and the Right to the City.
Francisco Colom Gonzįlez (1961) is a Research Professor at the Institute of Philosophy of the Spanish National Research Council in Madrid. Over the years he has led a number of projects on cultural and religious diversity, national identities and political space. His most recent publications have dealt with the political philosophy of the city, including Political Space (El espacio polķtico, 2015), Urban Form and Politics (Forma y polķtica de lo urbano, 2016) and Narrating Cities (Narrar las ciudades, 2020). He is currently co-directing the research project The Just City. Exclusion, belonging and the commons: an urban perspective on theories of justice.
