Social Justice and the City (Geographies of Justice and Social Transformation Ser.)

Throughout his distinguished and influential career, David Harvey has defined and redefined the relationship among politics, capitalism, and the social aspects of geographical theory. Laying out Harvey's position that geography could not remain objective in the face of urban poverty and associated ills, Social Justice and the City is perhaps the most widely cited work in the field. Harvey analyzes core issues in city planning and policy--employment and housing location, zoning, transport costs, concentrations of poverty--asking in each case about the relationship between social justice and space. How, for example, do built-in assumptions about planning reinforce existing distributions of income? Rather than leading him to liberal, technocratic solutions, Harvey's line of inquiry pushes him in the direction of a "revolutionary geography," one that transcends the structural limitations of existing approaches to space. Harvey's emphasis on rigorous thought and theoretical innovation gives the volume an enduring appeal. This is a book that raises big questions, and for that reason geographers and other social scientists regularly return to it. Front Matter 1 Cover 1 Half Title 2 Series Info -1 Title Page -1 Copyright -1 Contents -1 Introduction 10 PART ONE: LIBERAL FORMULATIONS 22 Chapter one: Social processes and spatial form: (1) The conceptual problems of urban planning 23 The geographical versus the sociological imagination 24 Towards a philosophy of social space 28 Some methodological problems at the interface 38 Strategy at the interface 45 Chapter two: Social processes and spatial form: (2) The redistribution of real income in an urban system 51 The distribution of income and the social objectives for a city system 53 Some features governing the redistribution of income 56 The redistributive effects of the changing location of jobs and housing 61 Redistribution and the changing value of property rights 65 The availability and price of resources 69 Political processes and the redistribution of real income 74 Social values and the cultural dynamics of the urban system 80 Spatial organization and political, social and economic processes 87 A concluding comment 95 Chapter three: Social justice and spatial systems 97 "Ajust distribution" 100 Territorial distributive justice 102 To achieve a distribution justly 109 A just distribution justly achieved: territorial social justice 117 PART TWO: SOCIALIST FORMULATIONS 120 Chapter four: Revolutionary and counter-revolutionary theory in geography and the problem of ghetto formation 121 A further comment on revolutionary and counter-revolutionary theories 148 Chapter five: Use value, exchange value and the theory of urban land use 154 The use value and exchange value of land and improvements 158 Urban land-use theory 161 Micro-economic urban land-use theory 163 Rent and the allocation of urban land to uses 177 Use value, exchange value, the concept of rent and theories of urban land use—a conclusion 191 Chapter six: Urbanism and the city—an interpretive essay 196 Modes of production and modes of economic integration 197 Cities and surplus 217 Modes of economic integration and the space economy of urbanism 241 PART THREE: SYNTHESIS 286 Chapter seven: Conclusions and reflections 287 On methods and theories 287 On the nature of urbanism 303 The right to the city (2008) 316 Bibliography 334 Index of authors 346 Index of subjects 349

Throughout his distinguished and influential career, David Harvey has defined and redefined the relationship between politics, capitalism, and the social aspects of geographical theory. Laying out Harvey’s position that geography could not remain objective in the face of urban poverty and associated ills, Social Justice and the City is perhaps the most widely cited work in the field.

Harvey analyzes core issues in city planning and policy—employment and housing location, zoning, transport costs, concentrations of poverty—asking in each case about the relationship between social justice and space. How, for example, do built-in assumptions about planning reinforce existing distributions of income? Rather than leading him to liberal, technocratic solutions, Harvey’s line of inquiry pushes him in the direction of a “revolutionary geography,” one that transcends the structural limitations of existing approaches to space. Harvey’s emphasis on rigorous thought and theoretical innovation gives the volume an enduring appeal. This is a book that raises big questions, and for that reason geographers and other social scientists regularly return to it.

Social processes and spatial form : (1) the conceptual problems of urban planning Social processes and spatial form : (2) the redistribution of real income in an urban system Social justice and spatial systems Revolutionary and counter-revolutionary theory in geography and the problem of ghetto formation Use value, exchange value and the theory of urban land use Urbanism and the city : an interpretive essay Conclusions and reflections The righty to the city (2008).