Redefining business to enable justice-driven and human-centered urban futures

The dominant definition of business as a profit-maximizing entity constitutes a structural barrier to justice-driven, human-centered, and nature-positive urban futures. Rooted in industrial-era paradigms of shareholder primacy, this definition reinforces extractivism, short-termism, and spatial inequality, constraining cities' ability to pursue just urban transitions and to implement nature-based solutions (NbS) and circular strategies in ways that benefit marginalized communities. This Perspective proposes an alternative definition of business as an entity that solves social issues and creates social value in a financially sustainable way. The argument is grounded in three principles: justice-centered purpose, relational and place-based embeddedness, and financial sustainability without extractivism. Under this perspective, business is not treated as an external actor to be regulated, but as a mutable institutional form embedded within urban socio-ecological systems. Drawing on the author's research, practical entrepreneurial experience, and secondary literature, the article examines illustrative cases from Europe and Asia, complemented by selected examples from Africa used for analytical contrast. These include cooperative housing initiatives, justice-oriented NbS enterprises, and public–private–people partnerships in housing, climate adaptation, and inclusive governance. The cases do not provide causal proof, but show how alternative business definitions become effective when supported by legal frameworks, public funding, and governance arrangements that recognize social value creation as a legitimate economic purpose. Redefining business is therefore a necessary, though not sufficient, condition for just urban transitions, opening pathways toward cities where dignity, participation, and ecological regeneration become foundational rather than exceptional.