1. Footsteps through the City: Social Justice in Its Multiplicity

Quezon City was founded in 1939 as a planned city and envisioned as the future capital of the Philippines, which was anticipating its independence in a few years. Led by President Manuel Quezon, Philippine politicians conferred upon the city narratives of nationhood and social justice to make it the best spatial representation of a nation-in-waiting. However, underneath these state-centric ideologies was the authoritarianism of the Quezon regime, which used urban politics to centralise power. But far from being a symbol of the President's undisputed dominance, Quezon City's inherent contradictions became weak points in the city's official narrative.

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The Politics of Planning

The Oxford Handbook of Urban Planning ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195374995.013.0036 ◽

2012 ◽

pp. 738-758

Author(s):

J. Phillip Thompson

Keyword(s):

Social Justice ◽

Urban Planning ◽

Built Environment ◽

Common Good ◽

Political Reform ◽

The Political ◽

Political Aspect ◽

The Common Good ◽

The Common ◽

The City

This article examines the political aspect of urban planning. It discusses Robert Beauregard's opinion that planning should not reject modernism entirely or unconditionally embrace postmodernism, and that planners should instead maintain a focus on the city and the built environment as a way of retaining relevancy and coherence, and should maintain modernism's commitment to political reform and to planning's meditative role within the state, labor, and capital. The article suggests that planners should also advocate utopian social justice visions for cities which are not so far-fetched as to be unrealizable so that planning can then attach itself to widespread values such as democracy, the common good, or equality.

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The Mothers of Tiananmen: Curating Social Justice

Journal of Curatorial Studies ◽

10.1386/jcs_00044_7 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 230-246 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jenna C. Ashton

Keyword(s):

Social Justice ◽

Social Action ◽

Women Artists ◽

International Collaboration ◽

Tiananmen Square ◽

Chinese Populations ◽

Creative Resistance ◽

Participatory Arts ◽

The City

Focusing on the activist exhibition The Mothers of Tiananmen (2019), this article examines my methodology of curating for social action and justice using international collaboration and participatory arts-as-research. The exhibition responded to the ongoing campaign for justice for the victims and survivors of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, as well as sought to support women’s creative resistance and voice. The Mothers of Tiananmen was co-created with artist Mei Yuk Wong, the 64 Museum (Hong Kong), and artists participating in the Centre for International Women Artists (Manchester). The context for the exhibition is the city of Manchester, which has one of the highest Chinese populations in England, along with a diverse international demographic with over 200 languages spoken. Through this case study, curating is presented as a creative and critical tool by which to respond to the range of justice and activist concerns of international and diasporic communities.

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