Generative justice in places: exploring the values of ‘spatial justice’

What might generative justice look like in places? Are there forms of development and occupation in the city that may reveal where extractive values predominate, or where unalienable values may be in circulation or are under threat? The emerging literature on generative justice has been rightly concerned for the most part, on the forms and effects of extractive values on livelihoods through analyses of labor, ecologic and social value. While illuminating, there has arguably been less focus on the spatial means through which these are occurring, and the values could be mistaken as being necessarily universal and aspatial. We argue that a key form of value extraction in the city in terms of ‘top-down‘, rather than ‘bottom-up‘ values, occurs through urban re-developments – often labelled either ‘urban renewal‘, urban regeneration‘ or ‘urban re-habilitation‘. Our methodology featured a longitudinal case study of change in a London neighbourhood spanning key interventions over a period of 30 years. We reflect here on the identification and assessment of key values, as well as their implications for generative ‘spatial‘ justice in places. We conclude by reflecting on alternate forms of emerging ‘spatial justice‘ that is more bottom-up, and whether any could ever be really ‘generative‘ in cities.