This historical case study applies the theoretical and methodological framework of Kim Dovey, Ambe Njoh, and Liora Bigon to examine the ways in which a colonial administrative building, the Dublin Custom House, served as a mediator of colonial power over Ireland, and how this process was understood by the creators of the building. This investigation is a response to the inconsistent way that intentionality is discussed in existing academic literature on the relationships between built environments and societal power structures. The study found that that the creators of the Custom House had a clear and nuanced understanding of the ways the building could be used to extend cultural and political power over Ireland, within the existing political framework in the country. In contrast to the theoretical framework used, the study found that in this case, the mediation of economic and political power was understood as functioning within the existing political-economic structures of the country, rather than creating new structures. The clarity of the findings suggest that further investigations into intentionality is likely to yield informative results, and that it would be beneficial to apply the methodological and theoretical framework used in this study to other cases in the future.

This research examines the process of memorialisation around the Indian Residential School System in Canada to draw connections between the fields of transitional justice and professional urban planning. For over a century, government and churches in Canada operated a system of residential schools that removed Indigenous children from their families and communities. Today, many Indigenous communities struggle with the intergenerational impacts of this system, and as a society we are attempting to heal the damaged relationships that have resulted. This research presents a comparative case study of two processes of memorialisation surrounding the residential school system. Through site observations, interviews, and analyses of documents, this research examines the transformation and memorialisation of the Mohawk Institute, a former residential school, into the Woodland Cultural Centre, a First Nations-run centre located in Brantford, Ontario. I compare this example with the national Commemoration Fund, set out in the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement (2006), which settled lawsuits filed by residential school survivors against the federal government of Canada and several church organisations. This research underlines some tensions inherent in memorialising the human rights abuses experienced in the residential schools. A significant difficulty is establishing balance between leaving ownership of stories of the residential school experiences with survivors, while acknowledging the responsibilities that the whole of society must carry if reconciliation is to be achieved. I conclude that the process established through the Commemoration Fund does not adequately reflect this balance, leaving a heavy burden on survivors and their communities without providing adequate support. I further argue that the timelines established through this fund do not allow for the longer-term evolution that may characterize effective memorialisation projects. These themes link to theories around collaborative planning, and considerations of social justice and procedural fairness. In recent decades, collaborative planning has been seen as a way to make planning practices more inclusive. However, in the context of planning with Indigenous Peoples, collaborative processes may not be a sufficient response to rights claims. This has important implications for professional planners, as we work towards decolonization, reconciliation, and establishing just-relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations in Canada. / Thesis (Master, Urban & Regional Planning) -- Queen's University, 2012-09-08 13:19:55.027

The years immediately preceding and following W.W.II marked a turning point in British colonial policy in Africa. In this doctoral thesis, which focuses on colonial and post-colonial Uganda, this turning point is approached in terms of a shift in would-be hegemonic socio-spatial diagrams of power. In turn, the town of Jinja is approached in terms of having constituted a strong point with shifting functions in a series of contested diagrams of power over time. Certain agents and spatial enclosures are examined in terms of having risen and fallen in terms of deemed efficiency in actualising specific lines and modalities of power; the ”African” housing estate, the ”Asian” and the ”Chief” being important among these. Drawing on the theoretical work of Foucault, Deleuze & Guattari, and Lefebvre, particularly that pertaining to discursive regimes of power-knowledge, space and the subject, I seek to show how projects and architectures of socio-spatial ordering instituted by dominant producers of space (principally the colonial and post-independence states, and capital) have impacted on – and in turn been influenced and translated by – the everyday projects of people in place. Much of this focus, and also the fieldwork, is channelled through the Walukuba Housing Estate that was built in the post-W.W.II colonial era. The study is based on archival research, extensive ethnographic fieldwork and secondary literature.