Justice in Local Space

The use and control of physical space has long been central to political philosophy (conceived, for instance, in terms of private property rights or collective territorial rights). However, this rich body of work has focused primarily on the justification of exclusive control rights at either the small (individual-property-right) scale or the large (territorial-right) scale, rather than on the normative dimensions of intermediate local-scale use of physical space and everyday spatial experience, the demands of justice or morality that arise from the local-level inhabiting of a shared physical environment. This is beginning to emerge as a subject of study in political philosophy/theory, and recent book-length treatments (e.g. Kohn's The Death and Life of the Urban Commonwealth (2016); Kukla's City Living (2021)) and emerging literatures on topics such as gentrification and housing justice begin to address these concerns. Much of this work, though, assumes "the city" (metropolitan area or municipality) as the relevant unit of analysis. Yet for theories concerned with justice in day-to-day life, issues of justice in local land use need not be distinctively urban, and the local space more generally—neighbourhoods, districts, villages, rural areas—and the relations between them (home to work, home to community) may be a more meaningful unit of analysis.

In this workshop we wish to explore what is distinctive about justice at the local scale and in the local organisation of land use, and how established justice frameworks might need modification when applied to everyday spatial experience.

Invited speakers:

Katy Wells (Warwick)

Bart van Leeuwen (Radboud)

Tyler Zimmer (Chicago)

Holly Longair (Kwantlen Polytechnic)

Pilar Lopez-Cantero (Antwerp) & Dan Guillery (LSE)

Bettina Lange (Radboud)

Corey Schuck (Radboud)

This workshop is hosted and funded by the Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science at the LSE.

Practicalities

9.30 - 18.00, 16th June 2026, in person

London School of Economics and Political Science (Sir Arthur Lewis Building, Room G.03)

All are welcome, but please register your attendance at the link above, so that we have an idea of numbers for catering, and since, if you are not a member of the LSE, you will not be able to access the building unless you are on our list in advance.