Magdalena Ugarte: Rethinking the Normative — Settler State Planning, Indigenous Law, and Grounded Legal Pluralism | City & Regional Planning Lecture
Planning theory widely acknowledges that planning is inherently normative. Yet Western values, ethical frameworks, and visions for the future continue to shape everyday planning practice. The deep connection between planning and Western law is crucial: it often labels planning practices that challenge Western definitions of property, public interest, land use, and decision-making authority as illegal.
Territorial conflicts between settler nation-states and Indigenous peoples illustrate these tensions. Drawing on years of community-engaged research with Indigenous communities in Chile, Magdalena Ugarte explores these disputes as clashing legal orders. By centering Indigenous law and land relations, we can reimagine planning in settler colonial contexts — shifting from the domination of Western law to practices rooted in legal pluralism.
About the Speaker
Magdalena Ugarte is an associate professor in the School of Urban and Regional Planning at Toronto Metropolitan University, where she teaches planning theory, public policy, social and community planning, and studio. Her work examines the relationship between planning, settler colonialism, and other forms of racialized dispossession, as well as how communities persistently excluded from planning plan for themselves. She is currently involved in collaborative, community-based research projects that focus on Indigenous planning in Chile and Black-centered, Black-informed planning practices in Canada. She is also leading curricular changes that seek to advance racial justice and Indigenous rights in planning education.
This lecture is part of the Department of City & Regional Planning’s fall lecture series.
If you require accommodations to fully participate in this event, please contact dcrpadmin@berkeley.edu.