RESEARCH CLUSTER 4
Co-Leads: Heather Dorries (UofT) and Maggie Low (UBC)
This cluster draws upon critiques of settler colonialism, racial capitalism, and theories of decolonization and Indigenous worldmaking to ask: How can Indigenous land rights be honoured and democratic decision-making and planning be promoted? How can Indigenous knowledge inform and lead housing initiatives, including community-led housing approaches? How can increased urban land densification and lack of affordable housing be addressed within a context where urban land is differentially valued? We will create a database of all urban parcels of land owned by different levels of government that will serve as the foundation for research into the potential uses of state-owned land for future housing development at various densities, as well as ways of decolonizing urban land and facilitating the transfer of ownership, use rights, and governance to Indigenous people.
Research Projects that are part of Research Cluster 4:
Project 4A: Land-back movements and the rematriation of urban land
How can Canadians honour and compensate Indigenous peoples whose land was taken by the state and often sold to private interests? Systems of private property, ownership tenure rights, and the urban planning system have displaced Indigenous peoples (Coulthard, 2014; Flynn & Shanks, 2021; Koschade & Peters, 2006; Dorries, 2022). How can we rethink what private land “ownership” means and the rights it confers, and design new forms of tenure that transfer ownership, stewardship, and governance rights over land back to Indigenous peoples? We will explore these questions about alternative arrangements that identify and rematriate land by transferring land back to Indigenous communities, re-establishing Indigenous control over housing and land use, and compensating Indigenous communities for Indigenous land. We will conduct a comparative analysis of Canadian and international case studies of communities with different models of tenure relations and rights and different ways of understanding land and land rights in Indigenous contexts. The findings will lead to policy recommendations about decolonizing our cities. They will benefit Indigenous communities involved in urban land claim negotiations and affordable housing initiatives.
Project 4B: Identifying state land for non-market housing
How dense might Canada’s cities become, and how might new forms of tenure facilitate better use of public land in the name of inclusive housing? There is currently no unified database in Canada that contains records showing which land is officially owned by each agency of the state. This project will compile a dataset containing such information and cross-reference it with data about high-rise buildings and other data at the Census tract level. This project will draw on this database to examine what percentage of urban land is owned by different levels of government and, in turn, how many additional housing units of non-market housing could be provided on this land. Ultimately, we aim to explore the possibilities of using vacant or unused state land to create inclusive communities. We will also use the data to identify land parcels and assemblages for study in Project 4A and community-led housing alternatives in RC2.