Unlearning the Colonial Cultures of Planning

Much has been written about the territorial, economic and political projects of colonialisation and their ongoing consequences. This book argues that the cultural 'grand projects' of colonialism have had just as much impact, in particular the state-based activity of planning and how this was used to conceptualize, shape and manage place in settler societies. It sets out how planning displays its colonial roots both in its intent and its content, in that it is used to appropriate territory for management by the state and then to produce an ordered, coherent system of land regulation and control. In doing so, it demonstrates how planning was central to the colonial invasion of settler states, but also how it endures as a colonial practice in complex post-colonial settings. Moreover, it examines how this colonial culture of planning, manifested in everyday practice, has come to shape land use contests between indigenous people and (usually non-indigenous) planners in contemporary post-colonial states.