Notes on Abolition in Planning: A Framework for Listening

Abstract

How can city planners support abolitionist movements? The case for abolition in planning must first confront historic and contemporary white supremacy, colonialism, and racial capitalism. Urban planning often reifies harmful structures targeting black, Indigenous, and people of color communities through affirmation of practices that uphold systems of policing and surveillance. Leaders in abolitionist thought, Kaba and Ritchie, among others, provide a blueprint for practicing planners for whom the incremental is perhaps more doable, but a critical reframe is required to move toward abolition planning. We briefly review emergent dialogues in planning pedagogy and practice on what abolition looks like.