Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
Abstract
The concept of justice is dependent on time and place and so far a definition for it has not been provided. Nevertheless, justice in urban planning is related with fair distribution of resources and public services in a city. Although the demand for distributive justice in urban planning is necessary, it is not sufficient on its own because it neglects fundamental and structural questions such as the distribution of power in the city. No doubt, executing any plans and designs has good impacts on some citizens and bad impacts on citizens with less social and economic power. From this viewpoint, urban development plans and designs are key tools for reducing economic-social inequity in cities. Since urban planning is related to allocation and distribution of scarce resources among various places in the city, it is important for urban planning to rely on criterion such as justice. Otherwise, it can lead to more enjoyment of some places compared to others in a city. The contact point of urban planning and social justice is distributive justice. Distributive justice is based on the distribution of municipal services in the city according to the two criteria of “accessibility” and “spatial distribution”. In recent decades, one of the most important outputs of rapid urbanization and physical development of cities in Iran has been a disintegration in the distribution system of civil service centers. It has been the basis for unequal enjoyment of the service system by residents in cities. Thus, the most important duty of urban planners and managers is to achieve just distribution of public services for different groups in urban society and to decrease inequality in accessibility to public services such as health and educational services, and green spaces. Unjust distribution of public services will lead to social crises and spatial complex problems in cities. By considering the importance of this issue, the key aim of this study is to evaluate the level of just distribution of municipal services in Hamadan city. It seems that the distribution of municipal services in Hamadan city is unjust. The present study is a developmental study using descriptive analysis methodology. To measure residents’ access to municipal services, network analysis method was employed. To measure the spatial distribution of municipal services, the Gary Moran coefficients were used. The findings of this study show that resident access to educational, sport, health, cultural and religious and green space services in Hamadan city is not acceptable. Moreover, spatial distribution of municipal services in Hamadan city has a cluster pattern. The cluster pattern in spatial distribution of municipal services indicates that some areas have more services than others in the city. The study results show that distribution of municipal services in Hamadan city is unjust. This injustice has various consequences and it can be a barrier to achieving sustainable development. In addition, it can lead to civil protests. It is recommended that city managers who eliminate and decrease present injustices in the distribution of municipal services should be given top priority.
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