Banca de DEFESA: MAJEEDA UMAR-AHMED

Uma banca de DEFESA de MESTRADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
STUDENT : MAJEEDA UMAR-AHMED
Date: 06/11/2026
TIME: 11:00
LOCAL: banca remota
TITLE:

REPRODUCING COLONIAL PATTERNS?
A Comparative Case Study of Participatory Urban Planning in Post
Colonial contexts – The case of Brazil & Ghana

 

PAGES: 112
BIG AREA: Ciências Sociais Aplicadas
AREA: Planejamento Urbano e Regional
SUBÁREA: Fundamentos do Planejamento Urbano e Regional
SPECIALTY: Teoria do Planejamento Urbano e Regional
SUMMARY:

Participatory planning has emerged as a key paradigm in contemporary urban governance, particularly
in cities of the Global South, where it is promoted as a mechanism for democratizing planning and
incorporating the voices and knowledge of marginalized communities. At the same time, scholarship
on post-colonial urban planning demonstrates that planning institutions continue to operate through
administrative structures, spatial rationalities, and governance logics inherited from colonial rule. While
these bodies of literature have critically examined participatory planning and post-colonial urban
development separately, limited attention has been given to how participatory planning itself may
reproduce colonial planning patterns within post-colonial urban contexts. This study addresses this
gap by examining participatory urban planning in Brazil and Ghana, focusing on the Participatory Slum
Upgrading Plan (PCRRA) in Vira Lata, São Paulo, and the Greater Accra Resilient and Integrated
Development (GARID) Project in Nima, Accra. Drawing on Udoewa’s analytical framework of
initiation, participation, and leadership, the study examines how participatory processes are structured
and enacted, and the extent to which they reproduce or challenge colonial planning patterns. Using a
qualitative and comparative research design, the study examines the historical evolution and
institutionalization of participatory planning in both contexts before analyzing how participation
operates across the selected cases. The findings indicate that participatory planning has expanded
opportunities for community engagement, local knowledge production, and inclusion in planning
processes. However, participation remains largely embedded within institutionally initiated and
controlled planning systems, with state, professional, and development actors retaining significant
influence over agenda setting, knowledge interpretation, decision-making, and implementation. The
comparative findings further demonstrate that although Brazil and Ghana followed different historical
trajectories in the institutionalization of participatory planning, both exhibit a similar tension between
expanded participation and the persistence of centralized planning authority. The study therefore
argues that colonial participatory planning is not simply a procedural limitation, but an institutional
condition shaped by the historical structures through which participation is organized. By applying
Udoewa’s framework comparatively, the research contributes to post-colonial urban planning and
participatory planning scholarship by demonstrating how colonial planning patterns can persist within
formally inclusive participatory processes, while also identifying the ways in which participation creates
opportunities to negotiate and challenge these patterns.

 

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Presidente - Interno ao Programa - 2140164 - VANESSA LUCENA EMPINOTTI
Membro Titular - Examinador(a) Externo ao Programa - 1211971 - CHRISTIAN RICARDO RIBEIRO
Membro Titular - Examinador(a) Externo à Instituição - ANNE WEBER
Membro Suplente - Examinador(a) Interno ao Programa - 1763487 - SAN MOMM
Membro Suplente - Examinador(a) Externo à Instituição - BRUNO PUGA