“How might urban planners incorporate reparative justice practices to heal the harms generated by white supremacy in our cities and across our patterns of life?” To find out, dive into the DUSP training camp for comsymp cadres at MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning.

“We began our explorations through engagement with recent discussions in planning theory regarding definitions of urban justice and wove in threads of Black nationalist, Marxist, feminist, abolitionist, and environmental justice movements into our theoretical framework,” wokesplained MIT professor Justin Steil. To make sure no intersectional grievances get left behind, the Indigenous Community Planning Project centers indigeneity, addressing unresolved questions of sovereignty over stolen land.

Professor Steil’s recently published paper “The Past We Step Into and How We Repair It” lays out a normative framework for reparative planning. We look forward to the joyful spaces our future urban masters will create, as well as the prosperity that black-led movements for economic democracy and material redistribution will surely bring.

One can hope that putting these ideas into practice begins in the People’s Republic of Cambridge so the faculty at MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning can be the first to experience the results.