Idea · Treatise

The Just City (Fainstein)

2010 · North America · Susan Fainstein
Conceptual depiction of the just city built around Susan Fainstein's values of equity, diversity and democracy
Conceptual depiction of the just city built around Susan Fainstein's values of equity, diversity and democracy · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Einatcha

What it is

In The Just City (2010), the planning theorist Susan Fainstein proposed justice as the central criterion for evaluating urban policy, organised around the values of equity, diversity and democracy. She argued against relying on process alone, holding that planning should be judged by whether its outcomes are fair, particularly for the disadvantaged. She tested the framework through comparative study of New York, London and Amsterdam. The book combined normative argument with concrete policy assessment.

Why it matters

It put distributive justice at the centre of planning evaluation, offering an outcome-based alternative to purely procedural theories. The just-city framework became a widely cited standard for judging the fairness of urban policy.

Plans it shaped

See it on the timeline →
hub.toekom.st — History of Urbanism · an interactive timeline of 850 planned cities across 6,000 years.