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¹ The planning committee’s role was limited to planning the workshop, and the Proceedings of a Workshop has been prepared by workshop rapporteur Vinu Ilakkuvan as a factual summary of what occurred at the workshop. Statements, recommendations, and opinions expressed are those of individual presenters and participants and are not necessarily endorsed or verified by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and they should not be construed as reflecting any group consensus.

address this issue, although one speaker (Agyeman) presented on the fact that public parks are often designed without input of the communities that will use them, and underscored the value of co-design with users. Although there was some discussion of ownership and stewardship of places for well-being, especially by Agyeman, community gardens specifically were also not discussed. The workshop presenters also did not discuss at length specific issues associated with rural places.

Spatial justice has been defined as the “fair and equitable distribution in space of socially valued resources and the opportunities to use them” (Soja, 2009). It has been conceptualized as “a way of looking at justice from a critical spatial perspective,” recognizing that spatial injustice is both an outcome and a process, and that it is necessary “to identify and understand the underlying processes producing unjust geographies” (Soja, 2009, p. 3). When faced with societal emergencies, whether chronic or acute, spatial justice can have significant implications for health and equity—as can be seen currently in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change crisis, among others.

Ray Baxter, a trustee of the Blue Shield of California Foundation, opened the workshop by acknowledging that speakers and attendees across the United States are on the lands of Indigenous tribes and peoples. He offered deep gratitude and respect to the Nacotchtank and Piscataway peoples on whose land Washington, DC (home of the National Academies), is located. He concluded the land acknowledgment with a widely shared desire to “lift up all of the ancestors who have struggled for justice” and—in their memory—build a more just future “by centering health equity as the prerequisite for improving population health.”

Baxter then described the rationale for the workshop, noting the connection between places, spaces, health, and health inequalities, including popularized health-related concepts such as “health happens here” and “your zip code matters more than your genetic code.” He described how the workshop builds on prior work of the National Academies including consensus recommendations on such issues as housing, urban development, and climate change as they relate to health and health equity. The workshop also builds on prior work of the roundtable including workshops on co-creating and stewarding inclusive healthy places with community members and on framing the dialogue on race and ethnicity to advance health equity, particularly in light of the displacement and marginalization of many of these communities compounded by subsequent harmful policies and practices.

Baxter also acknowledged that although an understanding of the relationship between place, health, and equity is not new, “we have all been paying more attention” to justice and injustice as features of places and spaces, particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and climate

change crises “that call on us to consider who lacks access to health promoting and protecting spaces,” why that is the case, and how spatial injustice can be most effectively addressed. He noted, “it is fitting and ironic that we are discussing space in the time of COVID-19 because COVID has been all about space,” including where people can and cannot go, sheltering in place, social distancing, working remotely or in person, and entering dangerous spaces as a first responder.

The workshop featured five sessions over two days, beginning with keynote presentations examining the history of spatial injustice and its legacies (Chapter 2). The planning committee organized the first session to ground the workshop in relevant historical illustrations of spatial injustice and how they are linked with contemporary systems that permit or even support spatial injustice. Next, the workshop proceeded with an exploration of climate change–related displacement and patterns of harm, as well as population resilience (Chapter 3), and a discussion of how policies and investments shape spatial injustice and displacement (Chapter 4). The second day of the workshop included presentations that highlighted concepts, strategies, frameworks, and policies for spatial justice (Chapter 5) and how a spatial justice lens can be applied to cross-sector collaboration and decision making with respect to practice and policy (Chapter 6), and it concluded with closing remarks and reflections on workshop themes and insights. A box of panel highlights is provided at the beginning of each chapter, and overarching highlights from the workshop are also provided. Appendixes include, in order, speaker and planning committee bio-sketches, the workshop agenda, references, and the readings and resources available for download on the event web page.

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