Socio-Spatial Justice and Housing

While the relationship between justice and geography and spatiality is acknowledged and put central in research by several scholars, there is no consensus on the type of relationship. Space is often used as a contextual way and social justice writings are in many cases focused on power and struggles within society. Edward Soja has argued for putting spatiality more central in social justice research. Space may have a great explaining potential, but may also contain a causal power. This paper will further explore the spatiality of justice through an analysis of the Amsterdam housing market. Institutional changes related to housing that especially change the role, position and field of work of the social housing corporations in the Netherlands change the provision of housing. Space, landscape or territory shape the effects of institutional changes and are therefore both a means and an end of production and moreover distribution of housing. Amsterdam, by some regarded an example of a just city, is characterized by a high degree of social housing that at the same time inaccessible for many. The private rental sector is small and expensive and owner-occupied housing prices have been growing quickly. To what extent can the Amsterdam housing market be regarded as just? And how does space relate to the concept of justness? The analysis will be conducted by a data-intensive study in which data on the dwellings in Amsterdam are connected to data on households.