Blog Post #1 by Aiyah Josiah-Faeduwor

Blog Post #1

July 20, 2021

by Aiyah Josiah-Faeduwor

Reflecting on your specific focus areas of climate resilience, economic development, and transportation, how has the concept of spatial justice informed your work? 

And, how is your work evolving as you learn more about the intersectionality of policy and design/physical form of a place?

i was first introduced to the term and idea of “spatial justice” as a masters in city planning student at mit. i came to understand this term and approach in city planning as a method, philosophy and mission of the conscious, social impact-oriented city planner, to be intentional and thoughtful about the design, function, and history of urban space in a way that aims to counter balance the dominantly racist, classist, sexist, homophobic, white supremacist, capitalistic, patriarchal design that has structured and governed cities since their creation. 

while the terminology was new to me, the status quo in which spatial justice sought to disrupt, was abundantly familiar. as a boston-native, from the neighborhood of dorchester, who went to school, and watched my parents struggle to sustain a family business within, in roxbury, i knew the core issues spatial justice were missioned on quite well -- i lived with and within them, was in transit with them, i inhaled them, played in them, was harassed, surveilled and arrested by them. i couldn't escape them, we couldn’t eradicate them, individually or collectively. 

it was ultimately no surprise my academic and professional career brought me to this space of work, as it’s the space i knew most intimately. therefore now, as i work towards identifying ways in which communities can collectively develop economic tools and resources that can allow for self-deterministic means of development, economic and otherwise, it’s undoubtedly clear that my passion’s origins were rooted in a deep personal feeling and experience that cities were spaces that happened to us, and not for us -- to me spatial justice meant disrupting that reality. 

as i learn more and engage with the intersection of policy and design, it becomes more abundantly clear that both these spaces are still very much influenced by the aforementioned problematic dominant social structure that originally built, designed and made policies for cities. I’ve come to learn that if “new urbanism” is to truly yield new socio-spatial structures, these areas of discipline must not just intersect, but must fundamentally re-establish their dynamic to be responsive to, and engendered within the urban communities they seek to bring justice.