‘Bounded Recognition’:

Land use planning & the textual mediation of the rights of Indigenous peoples

Janice Barry, University of Sheffield

(& Libby Porter, Monash University)

Conceptual / analytical focus (& focus for this presentation):

– Textually-mediated ‘contact zones’ ‘Bounded recognition’

(as opposed to mutual recognition)

Substantive focus:• Interface between land

use planning &

Indigenous (use) rights

/ title (ownership)

Geographic focus:• Province of British

Columbia, Canada• State of Victoria,

Australia

Our Research Context• Colonial histories

– Dispossession, aggressive assimilation policies– Ongoing socio-economic deprivation & poor health

• Recent shifts in Indigenous-state relationship– National apologies; transformative legal precedent,

processes to address unceeded title

• But… still persistent conflicts– ‘Material’: over resource harvesting, land allocation– Political: over jurisdiction, voice, representation– Deeper: over meaning of space/place

What resonates with conflicts over planning for Gypsies & Travellers?

– AND –What theoretical /methodological tool might help

unpack these conflicts?

Recognition:

some conceptual tools

• ‘Mutual recognition’ as a normative staring point? – Dialogical; continuous

• The ‘Contact Zone’ as an analytical starting point?– “the social spaces where

cultures meet, clash and grapple with each other, often in contexts of highly asymmetrical relations of power” (Pratt 1991: 34)

Textual Analysis & Planning

• Planning practice as highly ‘textually mediated’ (Smith 2001; Barry & Porter 2012)

– Texts directly and indirectly constitute & legitimate the field of planning by:

• assembling the objects of planning • establishing the process for planning• producing/reproducing a spatial and/or

temporal order• producing/reproducing social relations

Planning Approach(Often creates expectations for HOW Indigenous groups should

be involved)

Legal Recognition(Often defines WHY planners work with Indigenous groups)

Create boundaries by articulating:•desired objects of planning•desired process of planning•roles, identities & powers

Create boundaries by defining:•What is recognised (not

recognised)•Who is recognised as an

Indigenous party•Where rights are recognised

“The Textually-Mediated

Contact Zone”

‘Bounded recognition’• Recognition of rights & title (partially & at least

temporarily) unsettles the certainties of:– Property; understandings of space / place– Political authority/jurisdiction

= a possibility for new “contact zones”

• Only within the controlled boundaries arising out of:– the act of recognition (non-recognition) itself – the existing norms and procedures of the planning

system= resettling? a narrowing of the space for ‘contact’?

What are the boundaries the define the recognition Gypsies & Travellers’ rights?

– AND –What ‘contact zone’ does this give rise to? How

does this contact zone open-up/close-down possibilities for conflict resolution?