Cities around the world still bear a legacy of colonial pasts. Contemporary practices in urban place management, development, and policy often reinforce entrenched narratives that foster inequality and segregation. It is vital to develop approaches that ‘counterplot’ these narratives and help deliver better urban environments for all citizens.
This course unpacks how colonialism continues to shape contemporary urban settings, particularly across the Global South. Participants will critically examine colonial logics embedded in urban development and placemaking that reinforce spatial inequalities, dispossession and exclusion. The course also addresses how practitioners can actively counteract these dynamics.
Key themes that will be covered during the event by expert speakers include path dependency, decolonial practice and counter-plotting.
Participants will be:
- Challenged to reimagine urban development through a decolonial lens.
- Equipped with the knowledge and tools to re-shape systems to address colonial injustice and co-create urban futures that are fair and just.
The course will be delivered online in an interactive, seminar-style format. We begin by establishing a strong foundation, bringing participants up to speed on core concepts and contemporary debates in decolonial theory in the urban. Through a series of case studies interwoven into each session, we will examine how colonial path dependencies continue to shape urban settings together with their social, cultural, and economic implications. In the final breakout session, we will collaboratively explore ways to counterplot against colonial logics in policy and practice, with the aim of advancing fairer and more just urban futures.