Spatial Justice

Everything has to take place somewhere...

(Mitchell 2007, 9)

Noticing the Lawscape: Activity

Now, we will do the same activity as in 4a. Except this time, the spaces photographed may be more unexpected lawspaces.

Remember the four questions to respond to as you examine each photo:

1. Where is law in the photo?
2. If you were standing inside or outside this space, how would you feel?
3. What does law feel like in this space?
4. What does law smell like in this space?

Photo 1: This is Paraisópolis (Paradise City).

1. Where is law in the photo?
   • Law orders inequality. The separation of the two very different spaces, on the left and the right of the photo, is enforced through law — the dividing wall may be the law. Law is present in the order we see on the right: Law would give zoning permission, architectural permits. Law would ensure the division of apartments, the cleanliness of the tennis court and pool. Law would regulate the ownership, or rental, of these units. Law would permit certain cleaning chemicals to keep the building clean, keep the building white, the lawn green, the pools chlorinated, and the rooms air-conditioned. Law would allow certain people in and keep others out. On the left, where is law? It is untrue to say that this is a ‘lawless’ space because it is through the absence or neglect of law that certain areas may be rundown, overcrowded, polluted, or lack access to sewage systems and rubbish removal. Law also criminalizes certain populations and postcodes (think back to the article by L. Wacquant).
2. If you were standing inside or outside this space, how would you feel?
   • Your response about how you would feel will depend on your comfort level with either one of these spaces — but make sure you consider how you would feel on the right and how you would feel on the left. What is different? How does your intersectional identity influence your feeling in these spaces?
3. What does law feel like in this space?
   • On the right, law may feel ordered, formal, rigid, clean … it may feel very present. On the left, law may feel oppressive or absent, it may feel corrupt or unfair … it may feel very absent. But again, there are many ways to respond to this question depending on your own background and identities.
4. What does law smell like in this space?
   • On the right — the law may smell clean, fresh, chemical, sterile. Maybe there is no smell? What does an absence of smell indicate? How is the law at work when there is no smell? On the left — the law, or law’s absence, may smell strongly like exhaust, pollution, overcrowding … there may be cooking smells or a lack of sanitation.

Further Reading

Oxfam, “Profiting from Pain,” (policy paper, Oxfam Media Briefing, May 23, 2022), https://www.oxfam.org/en/research/profiting-pain.

Photo 2: This is Times Square during the COVID-19 pandemic.

1. Where is law in the photo?
   • Remember reading the article “What Makes Justice Spatial? What Makes Spaces Just? Three Interviews on the Concept of Spatial Justice” by Brown et al. (2007) — what is the difference between a public and private place? Is Times Square a public space? As a “pseudo-public space,” Times Square is regulated by commercial law, traffic law, contract law, property law, advertising/media law, and the list goes on … Law guides how and where pedestrians walk, what advertising can be displayed on the buildings, AND this photo was taken during COVID-19, when laws restricted outdoor movement and many indoor places were mandated to be closed.
2. If you were standing inside or outside this space, how would you feel?
   • During COVID-19, how did the law make you feel? It may have offered feelings of safety or feeling as if you were being watched and monitored. In Times Square, how would you feel standing there?
3. What does law feel like in this space?
   • Your answer will differ based on your experience in outdoor urban spaces — this will depend on your race, gender, ethnicity, nationality, dis/ability, education, and so on . .
4. What does law smell like in this space?
   • If COVID-19 caused waste removal systems to be delayed, then would law’s absence have a smell? Would the regulation or restriction of movement change the smell of a busy urban centre? In what way?

Further Resources

House of Friendship (https://houseoffriendship.org/)

The Working Centre (https://www.theworkingcentre.org/)

Women’s Crisis Services of Waterloo Region (https://wcswr.org/)

Photo 3: This is São Paulo during a fire in a favella.

1. Where is law in the photo?
   • You may identify this photo as illustrating an absence of law. That the girl is left abandoned in her grief, that her home and community is burning … all of this may seem like an absence of law, or at least a clear absence of justice. But there are nevertheless demonstrations of law in the photo — the house number, 5689, is an indication of zoning and property law, the electrical wires in the background would be a result of urban construction and an electrical grid, the iron on the door on the right could be a sign of security or construction designed to secure the home. The hand-painted sign on the post could be an offer for sale — a contract that would be guided by the laws of contract.
2. If you were standing inside or outside this space, how would you feel?
   • This will vary, but many of us may feel afraid, abandoned, terrifie … There is a lot of grief, loss, and fear in places that are destroyed by (preventable) fires. Maybe even anger?
3. What does law feel like in this space?
   • Would law feel effective? Would law feel like it is biased against those that live in favellas?
4. What does law smell like in this space?
   • Perhaps you thought of law smelling like fire extinguishers, of law smelling like the absence of the fires, which would bring a smell of chaos — sharp smells of burning plastic, tires, household items …

Further Reading

Iuri Barcelos and Natalia Viana, “Revealed: Fires in São Paulo Favelas More Likely on Higher-Value Land,” Guardian, November 27, 2017, News section, https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/nov/27/revealed-fires-sao-paulo-favelas-higher-value-land.

Photo 4: This is a photo of a fashion model wearing vegan leather.

1. Where is law in the photo?
   • You may be surprised that law is present in a fashion photo, and yet you may have identified that law is present in regulating what products and goods are able to be used in commercial clothing and fashion production. Law regulates the production of clothing, the sale of clothing, and the advertising of clothing. Law is also present in the way that this woman is walking across the street. Law mediates permission to take, and publish, photographs … What else?
2. If you were standing inside or outside this space, how would you feel?
   • How you would feel depends on your experience and your intersectional identities … but dig deeper to think of why you feel the way that you do if you were standing in this space.
3. What does law feel like in this space?
   • In this space, perhaps law feels expensive, unattainable, formal. Perhaps law feels exciting or interesting. Perhaps law feels like it exists only for the wealthy.
4. What does law smell like in this space?
   • Law regulating the production and trade of clothing may smell like garment-making; vegan leather would smell like the compounds of plastic — often recycled plastic — that make up the textiles used in these clothes and boots … What else?

Further Reading

Tansy E. Hoskins, Stitched Up: The Anti-Capitalist Book of Fashion (Counterfire), (London: Pluto Press, 2014).

Photo 5: This is a photo of garment workers in Bangladesh.

1. Where is law in the photo?
   • Law — domestic and international — regulates garment work. Domestic laws would lay out the conditions under which workers are hired and working; international law suggests International Labour Organization guidelines on the conditions for this work (basic conditions to ensure safety and dignity at work). Does this photo suggest a clean and safe work environment? What can you identify in the photo as indicating either the presence or absence of a clean and safe work environment?
2. If you were standing inside or outside this space, how would you feel?
   • You may feel tired, hot, stressed if you were working. Or you may feel calm, confident, and protected by the workplace? What else … ?
3. What does law feel like in this space?
   • Law may feel insufficient if workers are working long hours without breaks; law may feel like it is not working if there are unsafe or unregulated conditions. Or law may feel controlling if there are certain protections or codes in place to regulate the use of the sewing machines or working time/working hours … What else?
4. What does law smell like in this space?
   • The law may smell like the textiles and materials that are being processed and made in this space. The law may smell like cleaners used to sanitize the space. Or the law may smell like the bodies of those working — perhaps there is a lack of law regulating sewage and/or air circulation in this factory … What else?

Further Listening

Lauren Frayer, “For Bangladesh’s Struggling Garment Workers, Hunger is a Bigger Worry Than Pandemic,” NPR video, 3:00, https://www.npr.org/2020/06/05/869486297/for-bangladeshs-struggling-garment-workers-hunger-is-a-bigger-worry-than-pandemic.

Next week, we will read about how to conceptualize law in these environments around us.