A vision for inclusive and fair sustainability transitions in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area (AMA)

Cities and urban regions in Europe, and around the world, are provi­ders of vital ecosys­tems for deve­lo­p­ment, social and tech­no­lo­gical inno­va­tion, and human progress. At the same time, however, cities magnify the intert­wined social, economic and envi­ron­mental chal­lenges of today and tomorrow. Moreover, the mani­fes­ta­tion of those chal­lenges in the urban context is very uneven, due to deepe­ning socio-economic and spatial inequalities.

Socio-economic and spatial inequa­li­ties under­mine the Euro­pean project’s core objec­tives of social, economic and terri­to­rial cohe­sion, and the EU’s stra­tegic goal of smart, sustainable and inclu­sive growth, while fuel­ling support for popu­list move­ments and anti-EU senti­ment. Justice and inju­s­tice in the distri­bu­tion of the burdens and bene­fits of deve­lo­p­ment are reflected in the urban geography of cities and regions. Cruci­ally, diffe­rent social groups expe­ri­ence the effects of these processes in very diffe­rent ways. The expe­ri­ence of justice and inju­s­tice in the city is deeply connected to the affor­dances and limi­ta­tions offered by urban spaces, struc­tures and infrastructures.

The EMU fall semester addressed these chal­lenges by inte­gra­ting concepts of justice and sustaina­bi­lity into socio-tech­nical tran­si­tions thin­king, in order to formu­late stra­te­gies for inclu­sive, parti­ci­pa­tory and fair urban envi­ron­ments. It does so by explo­ring and opera­tio­na­li­sing of the concept of spatial justice, iden­ti­fying the spatial drivers of inequa­lity, setting up bench­marks for spati­ally just and envi­ron­men­tally sound policy and spatial design, through an under­stan­ding of the human, tech­nical and natural systems that make up the so-called Amsterdam Metro­po­litan Area. It explores those systems to find ways to design fairer and more inclu­sive policy for three burning chal­lenges of cities today, each of which have a major impact on inequa­li­ties and socio-spatial justice: 1) climate change, 2) housing commo­di­fi­ca­tion; and 3) shif­ting urban economies.