Social justice and a city: Surplus capital and the remaking of Athens

Social Justice and the City (SJTC) is an artefact that epitomises a radical shift in the history of the discipline of Geography, and more broadly in urban theory; and it is also a signpost to what followed it, a book that raises the spectre of a more fleshed out theory of urban capital circulation than it actually contains. Yet the demands of SJTC–that we reject liberal orthodoxy and try to explain the systemic forces that shape our cities; that Marx is useful; that we should see the city, and space itself, as a manifestation of surplus capital on the move; that we should dare to believe all this can be overcome–present an invitation to think about the city in a way that still feels vital. In this short piece, we try to think about SJTC in relation to a specific city to which we feel a connection (the inner-city of Athens, which is currently undergoing violent, dramatic transformation), which highlights some of the ways in which it is outdated–and many of the ways in which it is not.