Planning for Socio-Spatial Justice and Quality of Life in the Face of Competing Urban Development Dynamics

Dear Colleagues,

In many parts of the world, profit-oriented urban development rationales significantly limit the access to basic necessities such as housing, healthcare, education, transportation, cultural amenities and employment opportunities. Processes of dispossession and enclosure, value extraction and accumulation, land and real estate speculation, land grabbing, socio-spatial segregation, displacement and eviction, monopolization of land and housing rights, cause disproportionate access to both natural and social resources. As a result, individuals and urban communities face socio-spatial injustice and reduced quality of life. At the same time however, communities and socially innovative actors challenge spatial disparities, spatial injustice and reduced quality of life. As agents of change they co-shape more egalitarian urban environments through alternative forms of spatial development, land uses and ownership. They explore more diverse, dynamic, layered, equitable and just access to urban land, real estate and resources, transport, green spaces, community and health services, housing, work, etc. In some cases, spatial development planning is actually contributing to socio-spatial justice and increased quality of life, but actionable knowledge for spatial planners, urban designers and developers on how exactly this process works seems to be lacking. The nexus of extractive dynamics, alternative practices and planning interventions leaves us with many questions some of which we aim to address in this Special Issue.

The aim of this Special Issue is to collect papers (original research articles and review papers) that advance the understanding of the relationships among extractive urban development dynamics, alternative practices, spatial development planning, socio-spatial justice, and quality of life. This involves investigating (1) social and environmental inequalities, as well as the uneven distribution of urban resources, services, public, social and private infrastructure and sustainable livelihood opportunities across city neighborhoods, and how these are expressed in extractive land and real estate dynamics; (2) (emerging) socially innovative initiatives and novel governance forms aiming at challenging state-enabled private property regimes and market-mediated urban development, such as commoning and sharing initiatives, non-profit/non-governmental organizations and grassroots and indigenous initiatives; (3) counter-suggesting egalitarian forms of urban development planning; (4) the impact of the previous on socio-spatial justice and quality of life. Papers shall focus on one or more of these topics and questions, and specifically address the role of urban development planning in promoting socio-spatial justice and quality of life in the dialectics of extractive and socially innovative urban development.

This Special Issue will welcome manuscripts that link the following themes:

• Market-mediated urban development, socio-spatial inequalities and urban quality of life;
• Spatial justice in relation to urban quality of life, urban amenities distribution, environmental inequalities and public transportation;
• The impact of socio-spatial inequalities on urban quality of life;
• Spatial and land justice, social innovation indigenous and grassroots land right activism;
• Urban sustainability, commoning, alternative land tenure and ownership.

We look forward to receiving your original research articles and reviews.

Dr. Antigoni Faka
Dr. Angeliki Paidakaki
Dr. Pieter Van den Broeck
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Land is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• socio-spatial justice
• spatial inequalities
• socioeconomic inequalities
• quality of life
• urban sustainability
• spatial analysis