Design Justice and the Right to the City: Theorising Inclusive Urban Design in Nigerian Metropolitan Contexts

The rapid growth of Nigerian metropolitan areas has produced urban environments characterised by profound spatial injustice, in which the built environment systematically excludes, marginalises, and renders invisible the needs of women, persons with disabilities, the elderly, and low-income populations through design decisions that privilege mobility, aesthetics, and economic productivity over inclusive human flourishing. This doctoral study theorises design justice as a framework for inclusive urban design in Nigerian metropolitan contexts through a critical theoretical investigation and applied case study programme in Lagos, Abuja, and Kaduna. Drawing on design justice theory, the right to the city framework, critical disability studies, feminist geography, and African urban studies, the research employs a participatory action research methodology that centres the design knowledge and spatial experiences of marginalised groups across the three cities. Three urban design intervention case studies are developed and implemented collaboratively with community-based organisations representing persons with disabilities, market women, and elderly residents, documenting the process, outcomes, and systemic barriers encountered. The resulting Design Justice Framework for Nigerian Cities comprises five theoretical propositions specifying the conditions, principles, and institutional requirements for justice-centred urban design practice, with particular attention to the intersection of spatial justice with Nigerian gender norms, economic informality, and governance fragmentation. Original theoretical contributions include the constructs of spatial dignity threshold and community design claim, which extend existing design justice theory to account for dynamics specific to African metropolitan contexts. Keywords: design justice, inclusive urban design, right to the city, Nigeria, spatial justice.