School-Centered Community Development and a Quest for Spatial Justice - Exploring Competing Theories of Action in Baltimore

Oct 19, 2026

The article examines how public education and schools shape the pursuit of spatial justice, challenging assumptions that school improvement and neighborhood development operate separately. Drawing on qualitative evidence from Baltimore’s 21st Century School Buildings Program, it analyzes meso-level actors—city agencies and the school district—and how divergent theories of action, grounded in different justice claims, disrupt cross-agency implementation and coordination. It also considers pathways to align and integrate schools into community development practice.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages23

Reading Time58 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Case and research questions

Methods and empirical focus

Study design and data sources

Findings

Divergent theories of action and implementation tensions

Implications for aligning schools with community development

Planning Theory & Practice ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: [https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rptp20](https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rptp20) School-Centered Community Development anda Quest for Spatial Justice: Exploring Competing Theories of Action in Baltimore Ariel H. Bierbaum, Alisha Butler & Erin S. O’ Keefe To cite this article: Ariel H. Bierbaum, Alisha Butler & Erin S. O’Keefe (2022) School-Centered Community Development and a Quest for Spatial Justice: Exploring Competing Theories of Action in Baltimore, Planning Theory & Practice, 23:4, 556-577, DOI: 10. 1080/14649357 .2022.2113556 To link to this article: [https://doi.org/10.1080/14649357.2022.21](https://doi.org/10.1080/14649357.2022.21)13556 Published online: 15 Sep 2022. | Submit your article to this journal | | --- | | Article views: 70 | | View related articles | | View Crossmark data | Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at [https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rptp20](https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rptp20) PLANNING THEORY & PRACTICE 2022, VOL. 23, NO. 4, 556–577 [https://doi.org/10.1080/14649357.2022.2113556](https://doi.org/10.1080/14649357.2022.2113556) School-Centered Community Development and a Quest for Spatial Justice: Exploring Competing Theories of Action in Baltimore Ariel H. Bierbauma , Alisha Butlerb and Erin S. O’Keefec aUniversity of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA; bWesleyan University, Middletown, CT, USA; cUniversity of Maryland, Baltimore County, MD, USA ABSTRACT The role of public education and schools in the struggle for spatial justice is underappreciated because school and neighborhood improvement have largely been viewed as distinct processes. This article builds a conceptual and empirical argument to explore the intersections of spatial and educational justice speciﬁcally in community development practice. We draw on qualitative data collected from a study of Baltimore’s twenty-ﬁrst Century School Buildings Program and center meso-level actors – city agencies and the school district – to analyze how divergent theories of action that undergird community development can challenge cross-section implementation and coordination. We also reﬂect on potential pathways to align and integrate schools into community development practice. Our analysis contributes to understanding across disciplines by incorporating schools in the constellation of actors in community development practice, and in doing so augments foundational theories of urban justice and community development. ARTICLE HISTORY Received 1 December 2020 Accepted 4 August 2022 KEYWORDS Community development; public education; school infrastructure; theories of action; spatial justice Introduction The role of public education and public schools in the struggle for spatial justice is underappreciated because school and neighborhood improvement have largely been viewed as distinct processes. City agencies – planning, housing and community development, and parks and recreation – are key actors in community development efforts at the neighborhood level. Public schools are often important neighborhood assets but neglected in neighborhood planning efforts. But public schools are not simply unmitigated public good, nor are they aspatial. Public schools are contested places, central in the struggle for equity and justice, and the physicality of school buildings positions public education as central to the struggle for spatial justice. What happens when a school district becomes the facilitator of neighborhood-level investments that are imbued with the aspirations of not only educational but also neighborhood transformation? How can we understand the way school-centered community development operates, its possibilities and pitfalls, and its role in fostering spatial and educational justice? This article delves into the case of the 21st Century Schools Build

FAQs

Why does the article argue that schools matter for spatial justice?

It argues that school and neighborhood improvement are often treated as separate processes, so the role of public education is underappreciated. Public schools are portrayed as contested spaces central to equity and justice, with school buildings positioned as key elements in spatial justice struggles.

What Baltimore program does the article use as its main case?

The study focuses on the 21st Century School Buildings Program (21CSBP) in Baltimore. The program is described as investing to renovate and/or replace multiple public schools across numerous neighborhoods through cross-agency and cross-sector collaboration.

How do the authors explain problems in cross-agency coordination?

They find that divergent theories of action and differing justice claims lead to disjointed implementation efforts. Operational priorities and implied definitions of justice create tensions between city agencies and the school district, resulting in uneven implementation.

Oct 19, 2026

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