Seeking Spatial Justice

Abstract

Urban theorist Edward W. Soja's new book convincingly adopts what he calls the spatial turn, “an unprecedented diffusion of critical spatial thinking across an unusually broad spectrum of subject areas” (13), to work through the practical and theoretical difficulties of the social and the environmental and chart a productive path forward through contemporary issues of (in)justice that plague human societies across the globe. With a narrative prologue, a brief introduction, six topical chapters organized into two sections on theory and praxis, and a bibliographic essay, Soja structures Seeking Spatial Justice in a manner that clearly delineates and unites social and spatial activist theories and practices. The book's organization embraces both theory and praxis in the hope that it might reach a broad audience capable of learning from and applying the book's content. Soja's structure succeeds in this respect. He contextualizes his main arguments with the prologue's narrative of the 1996 “Labor/Community Strategy Center et al. v. Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority” decision in Los Angeles, California. Commonly referred to as the “Bus Riders Union decision,” Soja calls it a “remarkable moment in American urban history—and geography” (vii). This spatial lens allows Soja and his readers to account for a wide variety of social movements and factors that resulted from the court case. Per the prologue, the Bus Riders Union decision “stands out as an exemplary model of successful urban insurgency in the search for racial, environmental, and spatial justice” (xviii). With this spatial cognizance, Soja means to account for the 1996 court case and similar instances in which broad coalitions of people from diverse backgrounds have been able to counter many forms of injustice that crossed boundaries of race, gender, class, and space. The second set of chapters—“Seeking Spatial Justice in Los Angeles,” “Translating Theory into Practice: Urban Planning at UCLA,” and “Seeking Spatial Justice after 9/11: Continuities and Conclusions”—applies spatial justice theory to the city of Los Angeles and the surrounding area. Soja chose it because “[s]eeking justice as an organizing strategy and political objective has been particularly prominent and effective in Los Angeles over the past twenty years” (24). The city's history with social turmoil and social justice initiatives (the Watts Riots, United Farm Workers, Justice for Janitors, and others) foregrounds the distinctly spatial developments that Soja detects and attempts to reconfigure for the purposes of activist education.