ABSTRACT
Justice as a goal of urban design attenuates traditional models of practice grounded in expertise and elevates shared learning between design professionals and communities. The persistence of hate and other undesirable social values suggest the need for continued vigilance on the part of designers to promote justice in practice and foster it through the physical environment. Doing so requires reconciliation of the competing visions of design provided by individual-choice and market-driven visions of urban design and communal and community-focused perspectives. Co-creating the built environment with residents necessitates relinquishing some control over the built environment and a willingness to find opportunity in conflict between competing visions. Finding inspiration in participatory design allows for innovation, promotes empowerment, and offers the opportunity to focus outcomes of the built environment on fostering equitable and just communities. These possibilities, in turn, foster better places and richer, shared understanding of what justice means within those communities.
