Meta-Analysis of Studies in the Field of Spatial Justice

Due to the exponential importance of justice in the society, the political arena and urbanization, recognition of this issue is of significance. Living in the cities based on social, economic and cultural differences among the individuals, has led to formation of a spatial differences and these spatial differences have a key role in categorization and separation of the individuals. The following study is based on meta-analysis approach. The statistical population in this study included 49 scientific research papers on the subject of spatial justice in a time interval between 2007 and 2018. The data collection method in this research was based on PRISMA-P[1] (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic review and Meta-Analysis Protocols), that is a standard for meta-analysis studies. By considering the results from the studies, it was concluded that the urban public services are not equally distributed in the majority of the studied regions. Also, despite the great significance of spatial justice and its great impact, on the one hand and the presence of problems due to the spatial imbalance in almost all metropolitans in Iran on the other, it has not been a research priority in the scientific community, including university and research centers. The research results indicated the low number of these studies, the low depth of these studies in an urban scale in Iran and the lack of generalization for the research results. It is therefore recommended that, considering the importance of justice, the scientific community pays a special attention to the theoretical challenges and the roots of injustice in this regard, in order for the theoretical strategies to be able to be undertaken.