The evolution of spatial justice discourse in urban studies: a critical discourse analysis

Since the mid-twentieth century, spatial justice has become a central concern in urban studies, yet existing research rarely treats it as an evolving concept shaped by historical paradigms and turning points. This study addresses a critical gap by examining spatial justice as an evolving discourse. Employing Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis (CDA), maps how the discourse has been historically produced, contested, and reshaped across five overlapping generations: distributive, procedural, plural, dialogical, and a contemporary praxis generation termed lived enactment. The analysis reveals a dialectical pattern in which each discursive turn emerges in response to structural injustices, culminating in today’s central tension between institutional codification in the Global North, South, and survival-based praxis in the periphery. By providing a historical-discursive framework, the study reframes spatial justice as a contested arena. This framework moves policy beyond universal models, arguing for integrative approaches that engage with situated, plural, and insurgent realities of injustice.