Urban regions are catalysts of change. They foster pragmatic politics that enables more progressive governance. "Progress," however, has to contend with histories and structures that grew from exclusionary logic, uneven development, and the systematic exploitation of labor. Progress does not happen on its own; it emerges from the continued efforts of activists, engaged citizens, intellectuals, and professionals that strive for a more just city. It requires developing common platforms to facilitate the conflicts that inevitably come with differences. Spaces of Struggle is about creating spaces that harness differences and transforms them into momentum for progressive change. 

This special issues amplifies the discussions that grew out of "The Space of Struggle: A Mini-Conference on Radical Planning," a pre-conference to the annual Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) Conference in November 2016 (Portland, OR), organized by urban planning graduate students from around the US. We believe radical planning plays a crucial role in creating spaces of struggle but equally solicit submissions from outside urban planning to open up pathways beyond exclusionary developments.

The developments taking place since the inauguration of Donald Trump's administration in the US require rapid and assertive intellectual engagement. The rise of Trump illustrates a unique moment when exclusionary, anti-labor politicians give the neoliberal system a 'face' that can serve to unify activists, policy actors, and intellectuals behind concrete goals. This is a global issue and we strongly encourage submissions that engage with the international context of the overlap between far-right politics and neoliberalism. CPJ is particularly interested in papers that address the following themes: 

• Historical systems and practices reproducing/spatializing inequality, injustice
• Gentrification, displacement, evictions, exclusion, housing, redlining,  
• Labor, precariat, bodies, biopower, reproduction, informality
• Domination, depoliticization, neoliberalism, financialization, austerity
• Social movements, insurgency, collaboration/alliances across communities, activists, professionals and academics
• Radical planning, community action research, policy, law, the state
• Anarchist, socialist, feminist and queer planning
• Sanctuary cities, commons, occupy, dissensus, democracy, agonistic pluralism
• Race, Black Lives Matters, color-blindness, white supremacy
• Environmental justice, political ecology, natures

PLEASE SEND SUBMISSIONS TO [email protected] BY July 20, 2018.

CRITICAL PLANNING JOURNAL is a peer-review journal founded and run by graduate students at the University of California, Los Angeles, and housed within the Department of Urban Planning. Please, consult the guidelines for authors for more detail on how to submit to the journal.