No description available.

Originating from a disenfranchisement with the contemporary definition and realisation of Westernised architecture as a commodity and product, this thesis seeks to explore alternative examples of positive socio-spatial practice and agency. These alternative spatial practices and methodologies are drawn from participatory and grass-roots development agency in informal settlements and contexts of economic absence, most notably in the global South. This thesis explores whether such examples can be interpreted as practical realisations of key theoretical advocacies for positive social space that have emerged in the context of post-Second World-War capitalism. The principal methodological framework utilises two differing trajectories of spatial discourse. Firstly, Henri Lefebvre and Doreen Massey as formative protagonists of Western spatial critique, and secondly, John F. C. Turner and Nabeel Hamdi as key advocates of participatory development practice in informal settlements. These two research trajectories are notably separated by geographical, economic and political differentiations, as well as conventional disciplinary boundaries. However by undertaking a close textual reading of these discourses this thesis critically re-contextualises the socio-spatial methodologies of participatory development practice, observing multiple theoretical convergences and provocative commonalities. This research proposes that by critically comparing these previously unconnected disciplinary trajectories certain similarities, resonances and equivalences become apparent. These resonances reveal comparable critiques of choice, value, and identity which transcend the gap between such differing theoretical and practical engagements with space. Subsequently, these thematic resonances allow this research to critically engage with further appropriate surrounding discourses, including Marxist theory, orientalism, post- structural pluralism, development anthropology, post-colonial theory and subaltern theory. 5 In summary, this thesis explores aspects of Henri Lefebvre's and Doreen Massey's urban and spatial theory through a close textual reading of key texts from their respective discourses. This methodology provides a layered analysis of post-Marxist urban space, and an exploration of an explicit connection between Lefebvre and Massey in terms of the social production and multiplicity of space. Subsequently, this examination provides a theoretical framework from which to reinterpret and revalue the approaches to participatory development practice found in the writings and projects of John Turner and Nabeel Hamdi. The resulting comparative framework generates interconnected thematic trajectories of enquiry that facilitate the re-reading and critical reflection of Turner and Hamdi's development practices. Thus, selected Western spatial discourse acts as a critical lens through which to re-value the social, political and economical achievements of participatory development. Reciprocally, development practice methodologies are recognised as invaluable and provocative realisations of the socio-spatial qualities that Western spatial discourse has long advocated for, and yet have remained predominantly unrealised in the global North.

Dans un monde globalisé, les territoires de la périphérie du monde entrent dans un processus de changement continuel sous les contraintes de multiples acteurs, transnationaux, étatiques et locaux. Cette thèse s’est fixée comme objectif de révéler la spatialité de ces changements ainsi que les jeux d’acteurs qui y contribuent dans le cas de la Bolivie. Les hypothèses, qui postulent un irréversible processus d’autonomisation des territoires, ont résisté à l’épreuve des faits : les bouleversements politiques et sociaux intervenus pendant la période de la réalisation de ce projet. La thèse présente d’abord un positionnement épistémologique qui propose d’articuler l’espace et ses acteurs dans une perspective modélisatrice. Elle expose ensuite un cadre systémique de mise en cohérence des éléments de structuration et de changement territorial qui place, au centre, un système idéel construit à partir des signaux échangés par les acteurs afin de maîtriser ce changement territorial : signaux de domination, de pression ou de séduction engendrant des relations d’exploitation, de conflits ou de coopération. Ce système idéel est relié à des sous-systèmes matérialisés (organisation politico-administrative, système de villes et espaces de l’économie) qui subissent l’impact des changements étudiés. En effet, les politiques territoriales sont les rétroactions d’un tel système. Le traitement de chaque sous-système matérialisé correspond à un changement d’échelle géographique. Les modèles spatiaux à base de chronochorèmes complètent l’étude dynamique du changement. Ces choix méthodologiques permettent une lecture géographique des résultats suivants : - L'efficacité des mouvements sociaux réside moins dans la matrice sectorielle et professionnelle que dans leur assise territoriale .-L'État concentre ses réformes sur le sous-système matérialisé de l'organisation politico-administrative car il semble n'avoir prise ni sur le système des villes, ni sur les espaces et territoires de l'économie. Il n'est jamais parvenu jusqu'à présent à un accord qui lui aurait permis d'équilibrer dépenses sociales et investissements productifs. Un consensus social devra également être trouvé pour rendre viable un État plurinational. L'État concentre sur lui la majorité des signaux et établit ses politiques territoriales en fonction de leur pression. - La toute puissance technologique et financière des acteurs transnationaux se heurtent à l’efficacité des mouvements sociaux. Toutefois, ces acteurs restent à terme des pièces importantes d’un jeu où , pourvoyeurs d’activité et d’emplois, ils continueront à produire de l’espace et à consommer des territoires / In a globalized world, satellite territories undergo continual change process constrained by multiple, transnational, public and local actors. This thesis aims to reveal the spatiality of these changes as well as the sets of actors who contributed to it in Bolivia. The assumptions, which assume an irreversible process of empowering territories, have withstood the proof of facts : political and social upheavals occurred during the period of the realization of this project. The thesis starts with epistemological considerations which propose to articulate space and its actors in a modeling approach. Then the thesis presents a systemic conceptual framework providing coherence within territorial structuration and changes which focus on a system built from the signals exchanged by the actors to control this territorial change : signals of domination, pressure or seduction, generating relation of exploitation, adversarial or cooperation. This conceptual system is connected to effective subsystems (politico-administrative organization, system of cities and territories of the economy) which undergo the impact of the studied changes. Indeed, territorial policies are the results of the feedbacks of such a system. Dealing with each effective subsystem needs to focus on different geographical scales. The spatial models containing chronochorèmes supplement the dynamic study of the change. This methodological approach allows a geographical reading of the following results : - Social movements’ efficiency is better explained by its territorial origin than the sectoral and professional matrix. - The government focuses its reforms on the politico-administrative sub-system because it seems not to have stranglehold either on the system of cities, or on economics territories. Until now, it never managed to achieve an agreement which would have enabled to balance welfare expenditures and productive investments. A social consensus will have also to be found to make viable a multinational nation. The nation concentrates the majority of the signals and establishes its territorial policies according to their pressure. - The technological and financial all-power of the transnational actors face up to the effectiveness of social movements. However, these actors remain in the long term important providers of activity and employment and will continue to produce space and to consume territories