Social Justice in the City

Professor Speaks Out Against Higher Tuition, Gentrification

NewsMadeline Coleman — Published September 21, 2010

In a talk titled “Social Justice in the City: What is it? Who really Wants it?” Marcuse, an urban planning professor at New York City’s Columbia University, argued that social justice’s ultimate goal should be happiness. Part of that, he said, is working at a job that satisfies you.

Addressing the controversy over tuition increases at Concordia, he said that those who feel they need higher education to attain their goals should always be able to pursue it.

“What kind of system makes the availability of education dependent on the ups and downs of the market?” asked Marcuse, calling the tuition debate part of the larger systematic conundrum of how to make education a right, not a privilege.

He noted that the faculty is expected to be on side with higher tuition because “that’s how they get paid.

“That’s wrong,” said Marcuse.

The scholar, activist and lawyer, whose most recent book is called Searching for the Just City: Debates in Urban Theory and Practice, also went on a walking tour of downtown Montreal neighbourhoods, including a stop at Point St. Charles, the Milton-Parc housing co-op and a meeting with community organizer John Bradley.

The event was co-coordinated by The Institut de politiques alternatives de Montréal, an organization that encourages democratic debate around issues of urban planning.

Marcuse’s talk focused on the difference between social justice and capitalist notions of fairness, “who really wants social justice” and how to effect change.

“When we’re asking who wants [social justice], we should start with the assumption that it isn’t everyone,” he said, pointing out that elites who would feel “adversely affected” by more socialistic practices would be against it.

Marcuse also criticized the focus on efficiency over efficacy of municipal governments. The obsession with efficiency is especially insidious in transportation planning, he said; instead of asking who needs to travel and why, planners tend to focus only on the distance between locations.

“The goal is not to treat places fairly, but to treat people fairly,” said Marcuse.

IPAM’s next event in Montreal will be a citizens’ meeting at the Grand Plaza Hotel (505 Sherbrooke St. E.) on Dec. 3 and 4 to discuss issues surrounding metropolitan development.

This article originally appeared in Volume 31, Issue 06, published September 21, 2010.