Developing social-ecological justice through a context-sensitive reuse of urban vacant spaces.

Urban vacant spaces represent a potential for sustainable development, but their reuse is a complex and conflicting decision-making problem. This paper draws on social-ecological justice (SEJ) approach, as proposed by Grossmann, Connolly, Dereniowska, Mattioli, Nitschke, Thomas and Varo (2022), who argued that sustainability needs a major reconceptualization to deliver its social and ecological goals. The aim of this paper is to contribute to SEJ development on three levels: 1) on the conceptual level, SEJ is connected to vacant space reuse, where recognition, procedural and distributional dimensions of SEJ are explored; 2) on the practical level, a context-sensitive approach to achieving SEJ in vacant space reuse policies (demolitions, temporary use of buildings and lots, infill development & redevelopment) is employed, drawing on the case study of Czechia; 3) on the methodological level, the way how the SEJ normative concept was reflected in the mixed-method research is discussed. Utility of SEJ concept was demonstrated in the studied context, although achieving all three dimensions in practice was significantly conditioned by national-level institutions catered towards interests of market actors, unequal power relations among policy stakeholders, and internalized norms on the level of individual public officials. The paper concludes by showing conceptual, practical and methodological opportunities and challenges of achieving SEJ beyond the studied context. • Social-ecological justice (SEJ) aims to transcend mainstream sustainability. • We contribute to SEJ on conceptual, methodological and practical level. • Recognition, procedural, and distributional justice is explored. • Socio-spatial factors are accounted for in vacant space reuse policies. • SEJ was in Czechia notably moderated by political-economic institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]