In her article, “The Minority-Race Planner in the Quest for a Just City”, June Manning Thomas (2016) sheds light on the ongoing battle for social equity, with a major focus on the U.S context, and its links with developing a just city and the role of professional planners from racial groups in a transition to this ideal city realm. In her opinion, Race still remains a predominant force in the U.S social context and public behavior starts to deviate from its norms when it comes to minority groups in the society. Wilson (2003) argues that “centuries of different treatment, by individuals and by institutions, have left a lasting mark on the urban landscape, with far different circumstances for people perceived to be of minority race or ethnicity
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Thomas also discusses the means and end for reaching a just city framework and bases her identification of the two terminologies on Patsy Healy’s description of the terms in that “in this discussion of the just city, it is important to consider both means and ends. By ends, we refer to the goal that planners are trying to achieve in today’s cities and urban regions, and means refers to the process by which this goal is attained. Ends and means may be interrelated, contingent upon one another and dynamic according to the situation (Healey, 2003)” (Thomas, 2016, P. 229). Although there is no identical definition of the just city within different theoretical contexts and political atmospheres and different scholars of liberal theories and Marxism present their own unique definition of this term, Planners, as Thomas (2016) argues, need to consider this notion as their main end in the plan making procedure (p. …show more content…
Thomas (2016) believes that an empirical research would find the best answer to this dilemma. In her interview with a group of African-American planners, she found out that these planners summarize their roles under the two main pillars of defending the interest of minority community within the agency and serving as a bridge linking communication between their agencies and the disadvantage communities (p. 236). Although, they normally encounter with some dilemmas contrasting their hopes, when they entered the planning agency, and their roles, within the planning framework, the fact that their presence has been useful to increase connection and access in planning process for the minority groups can serve as one potential stimulus for planning firms to start recruiting more planners from racial groups, but ,as Thomas (2016) concludes, the mere increase in recruitment cannot address the structural challenges that these planners are facing in their work environment. Thus, more bureaucratic reform is required to discern and correct these
Thomas also discusses the means and end for reaching a just city framework and bases her identification of the two terminologies on Patsy Healy’s description of the terms in that “in this discussion of the just city, it is important to consider both means and ends. By ends, we refer to the goal that planners are trying to achieve in today’s cities and urban regions, and means refers to the process by which this goal is attained. Ends and means may be interrelated, contingent upon one another and dynamic according to the situation (Healey, 2003)” (Thomas, 2016, P. 229). Although there is no identical definition of the just city within different theoretical contexts and political atmospheres and different scholars of liberal theories and Marxism present their own unique definition of this term, Planners, as Thomas (2016) argues, need to consider this notion as their main end in the plan making procedure (p. …show more content…
Thomas (2016) believes that an empirical research would find the best answer to this dilemma. In her interview with a group of African-American planners, she found out that these planners summarize their roles under the two main pillars of defending the interest of minority community within the agency and serving as a bridge linking communication between their agencies and the disadvantage communities (p. 236). Although, they normally encounter with some dilemmas contrasting their hopes, when they entered the planning agency, and their roles, within the planning framework, the fact that their presence has been useful to increase connection and access in planning process for the minority groups can serve as one potential stimulus for planning firms to start recruiting more planners from racial groups, but ,as Thomas (2016) concludes, the mere increase in recruitment cannot address the structural challenges that these planners are facing in their work environment. Thus, more bureaucratic reform is required to discern and correct these