Human Rights and the Architecture of Conflict
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd
Publishing:16th Sep '25
£49.99
This title is due to be published on 16th September, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
Human Rights and the Architecture of Conflict exposes how governments on both sides of the Atlantic entrenched racial and ethnic divisions through manipulation of the planning and design of the built environment.
Based on interviews, never-before-seen documents, and field work carried out in Belfast, Miami, Washington DC, and New York City, this book shows how the planning and design of our streets and communities impacts the physical, mental, social, economic, political and environmental well-being of communities. Tim Cunningham, an urban scholar and human rights advocate, reveals how the British Army set about reconfiguring the urban fabric of Belfast as part of a counter-insurgency strategy in the 1970s that was to have profound consequences. By integrating colonial design principles into urban planning and architecture processes, racial and sectarian boundaries were enshrined in concrete. The outcome was that patterns of inequality and spatial deprivation were compounded as highway routing, street design, and the location of housing developments were used to further segregationist objectives. A global genealogy of segregation, the text highlights the real-life walls that cleave communities along ethnic and political lines—and urban designers and developers’ role in erecting them.
This book is ideal reading for courses in urban studies, community development, geography, conflict, architecture, human rights, Irish Studies, and city planning.
"An impressive exercise in urban forensics engaging infrastructure as social engineering. Case studies from the United States and Northern Ireland provide comparative analyses of strategies for urban segregation by law and by design. Cunningham provides an invaluable resource for understanding and ameliorating legacies of spatial injustice in our cities." - Richard Plunz, Professor Emeritus, Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University, New York City
“For all those students and practitioners in urbanism, particularly those addressing the problems of deeply divided cities, where contested issues of identity and inequality overlap, this is a must-read book. It brings novel insight to the perennial problem of how you reconcile community cohesion and social inclusion by remaking urban space for connectedness over segregation. Perceptively, the book acknowledges the historic injustices of race, religion and class that have imprinted themselves in layers of spatial discrimination and containment that continue to obstruct opportunity for the most marginalised. In a very readable style, and with an impressive set of references, the book challenges us to respect this legacy and all its complexity.” - Frank Gaffikin, Emeritus Professor, Queen’s University Belfast.
"This is a timely book bringing important issues related to discrimination, exclusion and transformation in urban spaces to the fore, namely the relationship of the built
environment to the management and experience of conflict and inequality. Grounded in deep history of place and time Cunningham provides compelling, insightful and novel insights to these issues." - Prof Fionnuala Ní Aoláin KC (Hons), Regents Professor, University of Minnesota Law School and Professor of Law, The Queen’s University of Belfast
ISBN: 9781032075457
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 453g
304 pages