ABSTRACT
Throughout the last decade, there has been renewed interest in notions of justice and human rights in an urban context. Indeed, in the aftermath of the economic crisis of 2008, these issues have become particularly salient. Following from the work of Lefebvre (1996), much of this has revolved around the notion of the ‘right to the city’ (Mayer 2009; Marcuse 2009a). Similarly, albeit with a more direct focus upon urban planning, the notion of the ‘just city’ has received attention through the work of authors such as Fainstein (2010) and Uitermark (2010). This chapter seeks to analyse the potentials and pitfalls of the notions of the ‘just city’ and the ‘right to the city’ in the context of existing political-economic circumstances (Fainstein 2010, 2014; Novy and Mayer 2009). In keeping with the theme of this volume, the chapter begins with the presumption that sustainable urbanization can only be achieved through the integration of notions of equity (Fainstein 2010) and governance (Jessop 2002).
