Evaluating the Realization of Social Justice in Urban Development Plans (Case Study: Hamadan city)

Justice has long been considered as one of the concerns of human being. Various thinkers of different schools are formulated several definitions of justice. Justice in each of its definitions requires some criteria, to be evaluated. Research shows that one of the best documents in analyzing justice in context of development issues is urban development plans which have different impacts on the manner of distribution of wealth and opportunity in the cities. This study tries to evaluate justice in urban development plans, using defined justice criteria. For this purpose, a total of 18 criteria for assessment of justice are derived from different texts of Iranian thinkers. These criteria include availability of services, housing and employment, natural freedom, improvement of poor’s status, lack of corruption, law enforcement, etc. The study evaluates justice in Hamedan comprehensive plan via reviewing the plan and surveying the opinions of city managers and academic experts in terms of 18 criteria. The results show that this plan is not just in any existing definition of justice and there must be some improvement in reviewing the plan according to justice notion. Finally, the study recommends that reviewing physical-spatial conditions of the plan, especially in terms of availability, could have great impact on improving social justice for the city.