Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
nothing. Surveys of these schemes have shown various advantages of the two types
(CS). But they also reveal that the typical development aid approach of western
countries has been flawed. Many of the projects provide aid in technical projects
that mainly involve developed world technicians or materials. Certainly they have
improved roads, dams and other infrastructure, but have often led to corruption and
bypassed the needs of the poorest. Capability advocates argue that more locals need
to be employed in such projects. Also when cash schemes are evaluated, researchers
(Clark 2005 ) have shown that that the poor often know what to do with the money,
spending it on improvements to houses, on education for their children and creating
the limited capital needed for improving output in self-employment schemes, creat-
ing a dignity of work and self-reliance. Yet it must be accepted that most of these
CCTS schemes originate in the national state, although there may be some local and
city-based administration. What is clear is that towns and cities could play a bigger
part in creating and delivering more of the capabilities shown in Table 3.2 , although
the limited tax basis of most urban places does limit what they are able to do.
3.4.3
Principles for Greater Justice
A third major approach to identifying and resolving the problems of the disadvan-
taged in the city has been to identify a list of principles that should be followed
by government agencies in the attempt to provide greater justice. Table 3.1 sum-
marizes the principles proposed by several prominent writers and committees. Cer-
tainly each source has its own emphasis, such as: the need to remove particular
oppressions experienced by the disadvantaged, as shown in the case of Harvey's
(2002) modification of Young's ideas ( 1990 ); the emphasis upon equality by the
Habitat International Coalition (HIC); or the focus on Basic Needs used in Fried-
man's ( 2000 ) discussion of what he called the 'four pillars for the good city'. Yet
despite the different content, emphases, and the terms used, there is in fact a great
deal of similarity in the ideas expressed as seen in Table 3.1 which has re-arranged
the individual principles of these authors and summarized them in the last column.
The table demonstrates that the ideas fall into three basic categories of principles,
summarized as Participation and Influence (issues that are more carefully identified
by Nussbaum's capabilities), Basic Needs, and Environment. These categories are
useful in providing a general context for questions of injustice, within which issues
that need to be addressed are explicitly identified.
A related, but more specific approach to the problem of injustice can be seen in
the 12 principles created by the 'Rights to the City Alliance' that were adopted by
the United States Social Forum in Atlanta in June 2007 (Table 3.2 ). This alliance
started as a pressure group against gentrification and the frequent removal of the
poor from the re-developed areas. It has developed into a movement devoted to the
assertion of human rights, democracy, racial and urban justice. Rather than using
the word 'injustice' to identify the problems of the disadvantaged, the movement
used Lefebvre's ( 1968 ) ideas about the various 'rights to the city' that need to be
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