Mapping Possibility

Leonie Sandercock is a professor at the School of Community and Regional Planning at the University of British Columbia, Canada. Her main research interest is in working with First Nations through collaborative community planning, using the medium of film as a catalyst for dialogue on the possibilities of healing, reconciliation, and partnership. Other research interests include immigration, cultural diversity, and integration; the possibilities of a more therapeutic model of planning; the importance of stories and storytelling in planning theory and practice; and the role of multimedia in planning.

This book traces the intellectual, professional and emotional life of Leonie Sandercock, one of the leading figures in community planning who has dedicated her life to pursuing social, cultural and environmental justice through her work.

Introduction; PART I Diversifying Planning's History, Theory, and Epistemology; Commentary: The Los Angeles Years: 1986-1996; 1 Rewriting Planning History: Official and Insurgent Stories (1998); 2 Who Knows?: Exploring Planning's Knowledges (2003); 3 Voices from the Borderlands: A Meditation on a Metaphor (1995); PART II Imagining Cities of Difference; Commentary: The Cosmopolis Project: From Theory to Practice, 1992-2006; 4 Towards Cosmopolis: A Postmodern Utopia (1998); 5 When Strangers Become Neighbors: Managing Cities of Difference (2000); 6 Mongrel Cities of the 21st Century: Is Multiculturalism the Solution, or the Problem? (2006); PART III Expanding the Language of Planning; Commentary: The Storytelling Project: 1986-2022; 7 Out of the Closet: The Importance of Stories and Storytelling in Planning Practice (2003); 8 Digital Ethnography as Planning Praxis: An Experiment with Film as Social Research, Community Engagement, and Policy Dialogue (2010); 9 Changing the Lens: Film as Action Research and Therapeutic Planning Practice; 10 Edge of the Knife: Film as a Catalyst for Indigenous Cultural Revitalization? (2022); PART IV Navigating Indigenous Worlds: Praxis and Pedagogy; Commentary: The Inner Journey: 2007-2022; 11 Finding My Way: Emotions and Ethics in Community-Based Action Research with Indigenous Communities (2018); 12 Partnership Praxis in a 'Reconciliation' Context: What Is Mine to Do? (2022); 13 Beyond Cosmopolis: Dreaming Co-existence as Indigenous Justice (2019); Conclusion: Mapping Possibility: The View from 2022; Commentary: Beneath the Pavement, the Beach?; 14 Once Upon a Planet: Reimagining the Soul of Planning (2022)