Justice in City: Ideological Sources of the Western Social Justice Research

Abstract

: The concept of “social justice” has entered the horizon of Chinese planning academics, and became a hotspot in the discussion of urban affairs, while constantly stimulated by the emerging social conflicts. In fact, the philosophical speculations of “justice” and “equity” were nurtured in the whole course of socio-economic and political theory in Eastern and Western Worlds, leaving rich ideological legacies. Therefore, this paper traces the roots of the social justice discourse back to three major ideological sources: (neo)Liberalism, Communitarianism and (neo)Marxism. It summarizes major social justice ideas in the Western World since the Enlightenment, hence to contextualize thoughts, to distinguish viewpoints