Ever since John Rawls's landmark A Theory of Justice was published in 1971 and reinvigorated moral inquiry of this sort, the idea of justice—what it constitutes, its basis, and how it can best be achieved—has been a central concern of moral philosophy. Since then there has been a proliferation of work investigating the nature of justice itself, but also its relation to national communities, areas of transnational concern (most prominently anthropogenic climate change), and the problem of global justice in toto.

Susan Fainstein's The Just City builds on this broadly Rawlsian tradition, but her object of inquiry is more circumscribed: What, she asks, makes a city just? And what kind of normative framework should we employ to best judge urban policy according to its effects on justice? Fainstein, a professor of urban planning at Harvard, devotes the first chapter of the book, “Philosophical Approaches to the Problem of Justice,” to discussing and differentiating contending theories of justice, and does a serviceable job doing so. She then argues for a three-pronged framework for judging the justness of a city or particular urban policy, proposing that we examine a given policy's effects on equity, diversity, and democracy.

While acknowledging that these ideals may sometimes be at odds (for instance, in the case where residents of a particular neighborhood may resist economic or racial integration, thus pitting local democracy against diversity), Fainstein then devotes the book's second chapter, “Justice and Urban Transformation: Planning in Context,” to the specific areas of urban policy that each criterion of justice particularly bears upon and the recent history of urban planning in these areas.

The real heart of The Just City, however, are the case studies of New York, London, and Amsterdam that form the book's next three chapters. Fainstein's expertise shines brightest here. Examining the postwar history of these three major cities, she looks at the development of specific initiatives in each—Battery Park City and the redevelopment of Times Square in New York City, planning for the 2012 Olympics and the Docklands redevelopment in London, and the history of social housing in Amsterdam, among others—and assesses them according to her core criteria of equity, diversity, and democracy. Stepping back, she looks at the general development of these cities in the last half century and finds that, her three criteria considered, New York is the least just of the three, Amsterdam the most just, and London somewhere in between. (Partisans of New York should not totally despair, however, as the city nevertheless excels in some areas, particularly under the criterion of diversity.)

Drawing inspiration from the capabilities approach associated with Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum, Fainstein concludes her book with a list of general policy directives aimed at furthering equity, diversity, and democracy in urban areas, and thus the pursuit of a more just urban environment. Well researched and highly readable, The Just City will appeal to urban planners, philosophers, and public policy experts alike.