Territorial Justice – A Review of the Latest Approaches

The aim of this article was to present issues related to the concept of social justice and to participate in the ongoing discussion on this topic in the field of social sciences. It attempts to discuss the concept of social justice in the territorial dimension, to determine what distinguishes it from other concepts of justice (e.g. social justice) and to examine how this concept is used to explain existing territorial differentiation in the analysis of various research problems. The study selected issues such as: access to local services, community subjectivity and territorial cohesion. The conducted literature review showed that the concept of social justice with the territorial dimension was first discussed in relation to cities, and only later to other spatial units (regions, peripheral rural areas). This concept gained popularity in the late 1960s and still enjoys great interest among researchers and practitioners. A precise and unambiguous definition of a just reality is an impossible task due to its complexity and relativity. Unless this definition is purely formal, i.e. showing the logical structure of the concept, and not the content associated with it. Following this line of reasoning, the concept of social justice in the territorial system consists in the equal treatment of a certain set of entities according to several (usually two) adopted criteria. At least one of them is related to social or economic issues, and at least one to spatial differentiation.