Invitation book launch 13 June 2-6PM 'Envisioning Spatial Justice' by Caroline Newton, TU Delft
The pressure on urban space grows by the day. Who writes the rules for a just city? At the launch of Envisioning Spatial Justice we explore how spatial practice can serve as a catalyst for resistance, care, and imagination.
The afternoon starts with a dialogue between the author Dr. Caroline Newton and Hilde Blank (Chair, EFL Foundation). Followed by a keynote by philosopher Dr. Thijs Lijster (University Groningen) on aesthetics, the commons, and urban equality. Lightning talks by Dr. Irene Luque Martín, Isabella Jaramillo Díaz, and Marh Echtai on Justice in design and planning processes. Ending with a panel & public discussion, from proposition to praxis–what does spatial justice demand of planners, designers, and policy-makers?
A concise exhibition of student projects featured in the book sets the stage; the closing reception offers space to pursue the conversation further.
Why now? Hope and imagination may seem like luxuries in a time of social inequality and ecological stress, yet they are precisely the engines of just spatial action. Envisioning Spatial Justice translates this moral urgency into concrete design and policy strategies for designers, academics and professionals ready to recalibrate their compass.
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About Envisioning Spatial Justice
Just like the rebels in Star Wars fighting for freedom against oppressive forces, urban planner, architect, and political scientist Caroline Newton was drawn to the struggles over space and rights around the world. This fascination grew into an inquiry into the entanglements of spatial organisation and structures of power.
Over the years, her work has been driven by a desire to understand - and intervene in - the spatial conditions that shape human lives and social relations. In 2019, the Van Eesteren Fellowship enabled her to deepen her exploration of ways to reimagine urban environments that foster equity, care, and inclusivity, especially in response to today's environmental and political urgencies.
Envisioning Spatial Justice is both a reflection and a proposition. It synthesises insights accumulated through research and teaching and from years of collaborating with students whose graduation projects placed justice at the core of their spatial investigations. Structured around theory, reflection, and design, the book explores what it means to design with justice in mind. Challenging neoliberal paradigms and drawing on feminist, post-colonial, and radical urban theory, it insists on the political power of imagination. It calls for developing new ethical foundations for spatial practice. Part provocation, part toolkit, part manifesto, Envisioning Spatial Justice speaks to urbanists, designers, educators, and activists commited to co-creating more just and inclusive futures.
This publication is written in English. With a book design by Mainstudio (Edwin van Gelder, Ludwig Galla).
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Ronja Driessen
