Towards the 'just city'? Exploring the attitudes of European city mayors

The dismantling of equity oriented urban policies has led to a call for a 'just city' agenda where policies are directed towards equity, diversity and democracy rather than growth and cultural protectionism. This paper presents a first assessment of political support for the 'just city' and investigates its conditioning factors, building on a European survey of city mayors. We find a strong association with leftist ideology, but also enabling conditions for the support of conservative mayors. The positive predisposition of leftist mayors, however, wains with increasing dependence on EU funding. The exploratory study thus opens new avenues for further research.