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Just Space brings together a network of London community and grassroots organisations formed to act as a voice for Londoners during the formulation of London’s major planning strategy.

Overview

The new government and planning structure for Greater London which began in 2000 posed a challenge for community and activist groups which had previously been active mainly at the levels of the city's 33 Boroughs, or nationally. Academic and community people engaging with the new system began to meet at public hearings early in the millennium and formed Just Space as a network for mutual support, sharing of evidence and forging of common positions.

Staff and students at The Bartlett School of Planning and other ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº departments have played active roles in the organisation, gathering evidence, challenging and debating established policies and their underlying theorisations ever since.

Many staff are now contributing to, and benefitting from, this networked activity and it generates financial support from ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº Public Engagement funds, research councils and EU sources, leading to many kinds of outputs including scholarly journal papers, popular books and evidence to London Assembly enquiries. Related student work has informed policy debates and given participants valuable experience in working with London's diverse citizenry.

People

Michael Edwards
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Outputs

• Evidence to hearings of London Assembly committees and to the Examinations in Public of successive Spatial Development Strategies (known at the London Plan) and other Mayoral strategies.
• Protocol on community cooperation with university staff and students, successive editions widely cited nationally and internationally.
• Publications by and about Just Space and its constituent groups - listed in the publications page of the Just Space web site and in the profiles of individual staff, notably Michael Edwards, Myfanwy Taylor, Pablo Sendra, Daniel Fitzpatrick, Elena Besussi, Jess Ferm, Barbara Lipietz and Jennifer Robinson (Geography) and Sarah Bell (Engineering Exchange).
• Numerous reports by individual students and project groups who have undertaken projects for community groups as part of undergraduate or masters modules or as individual initiatives mentored by community tutors. This activity, the Knowledge Exchange, is coordinated by Daniel Fitzpatrick and supported financially by the Bartlett School of Planning. See
• A number of PhD and masters dissertations.
• A particular highlight was a masters module Citizen Participation in Metropolitan Planning, taught and followed jointly by the Bartlett and Geography and run with the Just Space network who generated and co-tutored the course assignments. It ran for some years, until both departments decided that it was a drain on their resources.

Related links

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Photo by Michael Edwards