Postcolonial planning: The Alternative Planning Group and the transformation of social planning in Toronto at the turn of the 21st century

My dissertation is an interdisciplinary critique of social planning at the turn of the twenty-first century in Toronto, Canada. Postcolonial Planning contributes to the field of urban studies by examining socio-spatial knowledge of cities at the intersection of globalization, multiculturalism, and planning discourses. This is an intimately detailed case study of the Alternative Planning Group (APG), a collective of four social planning organizations among groups of Chinese, continental African, Latino-Hispanic, and South Asian communities in Toronto. My research expands planning scholarship by investigating an approach to planning that is politicized, and that is practiced, experienced, and situated within and among immigrant and racialized groups in Toronto. I argue that the APG's efforts constitute a new approach to planning---what I term "postcolonial planning"---that challenges and attempts to transcend the neoliberal transformation of Toronto, the colonial histories of immigrant groups and legacies imposed upon these groups in the city, federal official multiculturalism policy, and city government diversity management practices.; My dissertation draws from my eight years of personal and professional experience in working with the APG and from my empirical research conducted over a six-month period in 2005. The research includes focused discussions with APG leaders and twenty-five in-depth interviews with individuals who have been engaged in some way with the APG's activities since 1998.; My empirical research identifies three elements to a postcolonial planning in Toronto; these are: (1) planning as collective practice that challenges dominant planning practices; (2) a critical examination of multiculturalism and diversity; and (3) a struggle through contestation and containment for an identity-citizenship connection. I show that Toronto is the location of social-spatial transformation, and immigrants and racialized groups are part of that transformation. This transformation is not simply based on the changing demographics due to immigration; it is due to the active participation of groups in transforming the terms of their engagement with the city and City government. I conclude that postcolonial planning is an emergent planning practice in Toronto, based on knowledge that is situated in the Alternative Planning Group's communities, and in their shared histories of immigration and social marginalization.