The urban in fragile,uncertain, neoliberal times: towards new geographies of social justice?

Canadian cities are at a crossroads. The neoliberalization of governance at multiple scales, inadequate re-investment in urban infrastructure, increasing reliance on continental and international trade, and the restructuring of the space economy have combined to weaken Canada's cities just as the global economic system is undergoing transformation. Canadian urban geographic scholarship has much to offer under current conditions, and is already making significant contributions in key areas. In particular, research on what might be called the contours and impacts of urban restructuring and the neoliberal city, immigration and cities of difference, and urban environmental justice show much promise and are likely to define the core of Canadian urban geography into the future.     

Notes on women in the global city: Chicago

As the organizers of an event on women in the global city, we wanted to create a forum exploring the intersections of class, gender and other forms of inequality that fracture ‘global Chicago’. In the panelists' discussion of the intersections of struggles relating to housing, education and environmental justice in Chicago's particular version of the global city, we found evidence of lives disrupted by neoliberal trends, as well as possible sites to contest these disruptions. These struggles reverberate to shape a new urban vision, as the academics and activists assembled for our panel aim not just to work on the local issues of specific women, but to create a city in which work is well compensated, housing is affordable for everyone, schools educate all children well, all neighborhoods are safe both from crime and environmental pollutants, and everyone has the time to fully engage as active citizens of the city.     

The Epistemological Challenge of Higher Education Student Volunteering: “Reproductive” or “Deconstructive” Volunteering?

Abstract: This paper addresses student volunteering as an important socio‐cultural trend which is generally taken for granted and un‐interrogated. We explore tensions inherent in the practice and articulation of higher education student volunteering, via biographical narratives of contrasting student volunteers and employ Rose's (1993, Feminism and Geography: The Limits of Geographical Knowledge, University of Minnesota Press) theory of “paradoxical space” to unpick and understand these narratives, as this has proven a generative approach to re‐conceptualising students’ engagement with universities and communities. Building on this theoretical approach, we propose a new conceptual framework to analyse students’ learning and understanding of social justice through volunteering. This framework contrasts reproductive altruism, or volunteering which reproduces social inequalities, with a deconstructive form that provides students with resources to recognise and challenge power relations and inequality in society.     

新区域经营观的空间体系价值统一规划理念——我的区域规划社会公正观

依据\"新社会经济发展的公正理念\"首议的\"新区域经营\"管理思想,从空间公正角度创立了将其耦合到区域发展规划的系统理念。当代人文社会科学与区域学科出现了\"社会公正\"转向探讨的系列\"新\"前沿理念。地理学提出了新人文地理学逻辑,社会行政的公共管理也提出了新公共管理逻辑。将空间公正与社会公正耦合到区域生活空间单元体系,为此\"新区域经营\"提出了\"社会与区域价值统一\"的原理。论文以新人文地理学的\"社会生活空间质量观\"为基础,阐述了\"空间体系价值统一规划\"机理、原则与控制性路径;其次,论证了其构建的价值体系响应及构成因素响应结构;最后,论述了新区域经营观对生活质量价值统一的两个层次控制规划规则与路径。     

社会公正:化解社会风险的根本出路

科学认识当前中国所面临的社会风险,对于构建和谐社会具有重要指导意义。社会公正在一定程度上的缺位是改革开放以来中国社会的一个重要特征,也是当前中国所面临社会风险的深层次原因。社会公正的实现,既是化解社会风险的根本出路,也是构建和谐社会的根本保证。     

邓小平社会公正理论初探

社会公正是关系到当代中国社会发展的重大课题。邓小平作为我国改革开放的总设计师,对社会公正问题从事关社会发展全局的高度作出了深入思考与精辟论述。在当前构建社会主义和谐社会的进程中,认真研究和深刻把握邓小平关于社会公正的思想,具有极其重大的理论价值和实践意义。     

协调利益关系:西方收入分配理论的合理内核及其借鉴

西方收入分配理论的合理内核突出表现在:公平正义是社会的首要价值追求;社会福利最大化是实现公平的必要条件;合理分配是实现公平的充分条件。这给我国协调利益关系提供了借鉴:解决利益关系不和谐问题,首先要确定社会公平正义的价值理念,要以公平正义的制度安排为保障,以提高经济效率、加快发展为核心,为利益关系和谐提供物质基础。     

环境保护与可持续发展中的社会问题——中加国际学术研讨会综述

如果不能实现社会公正,包括社会性别平等和代内代际公平,我们就不可能实现环境保护与可持续发展。本文对环境保护与可持续发展背景下社会公平的实现途径,如公众参与、生态补偿、文化适应、体制创新、健全法制、性别平等及解决三江源环境保护与可持续发展中社会问题的关键环节进行了梳理和评价。     

1990年以来西方城市社会地理学研究进展

本文对1990年以来西方城市社会地理的研究特点进行概括,表现为研究成果不断增多、主题多样化和研究方法上从量化到质化的转变,然后从内容上进行归纳,包含社会公平、疾病与健康地理、犯罪地理、感应地理等研究重点,其中社会公平又细分为对弱势群体地理研究、福利地理以及女性地理学。这些研究在侧重点上有较大转变,从一般性社会要素空间区位探讨过渡到要素背后的社会、文化、政治等情境的结构式剖析,注重研究社会空间的隐喻和文化意义、社会问题对空间的塑造机制以及特定空间对人的再造等。在此基础上对西方城市社会地理研究进行简要评价,归结为问题导向、主题多样化、地方性研究和质化与本位研究主导,最后提出对中国社会地理研究的初步建议:壮大中国社会地理研究队伍、积极借鉴其它学科、以居民日常行为地理研究为突破口。     

城市化进程中交通公平的研究进展

在系统分析城市化进程中交通公平内涵的基础上,从弱势群体与社会排斥、交通公平评估与改善策略等方面,梳理交通公平的相关研究成果。结果表明,当前城市交通公平性研究还需从以下几个方面进行完善:交通公平内涵应更加注重改善快速城市化地区居民群体的出行环境;系统分析快速城市化进程中交通公平的演化模式,改善交通公平的基本测度方法;构建交通公平评估的空间分析方法,从经济成本可达性角度剖析交通公平性;关注快速城市化地区交通公平的改善策略,提出可操作性的交通公平优化方法。     

社会分层视野中的教育消费

在我国转型时期社会分化加剧以及国家对教育收费制度改革的社会背景下,不同阶层家庭在教育消费上表现出结构性差异,其背后反映的是教育公平以及社会公平问题。     

Moral teaching in geography

Abstract

Moral issues tend to be marginalised in contemporary education. This paper argues that geography is well placed to help to address this defect. Some cases with an obvious geographical dimension are outlined, to show how they might be used to open up broader moral problems. Geography teaching in higher education could have an important part to play in the reassertion of a moral dimension in how people come to understand the world and play a part in its re‐creation.     

利益格局变迁与非直接利益冲突

利益冲突是引起现代社会冲突的两种基本因素之一,阶级意识（阶级认同）是阶级社会中从阶级矛盾到阶级冲突行为发生的关键环节。在现代社会,社会公平感是现代社会冲突行为发生的主要中介变量。当今中国群体性事件增多,折射出非直接利益冲突的特点,反映出利益相对剥夺感群体由对物质利益分配的不满转向对社会公平公正价值理念的怀疑,这将会直接削弱统治的“合法性”基础。     

The just city for whom? Re-conceiving active citizenship for lone mothers in Canada

In this article we argue that the ‘just city’ is one that enables individuals to exercise their citizenship, including making choices to participate (or not) in communal existence. However, inequities in resource distribution encountered by lone mothers on income assistance threaten not only individual sustenance and survival, but also the foundational fabric of our society. The implication that an active citizen is one who exercises their rights and responsibilities in a balanced way is problematic, and has the potential to add blame to poverty, justifying exclusion rather than inclusion. Using qualitative data from a longitudinal study of lone mothers in extreme poverty in Vancouver, British Columbia we illustrate how macro-processes within cities (i.e., delivery of affordable housing, food security, childcare, transportation) impinge upon the micro-processes of these women's lives (i.e., impacts on health, economic security, social mobility). Focusing on citizenship as a set of constrained choices challenges the policies and practices of social planning to consider how the scope of citizenship can be expanded by shaping key urban opportunities. Grounding the vision of a just city in the potential for personal agency suggests that policymakers and planners have a key role in shaping citizenship for the most marginalized and oppressed through a combination of providing supports and enabling opportunities in the urban environment.