Informal landscapes and the performative placing of insurgent planning

Abstract

Non-representational theory illuminates the role of mundane, performative presentations in the production of emotional geographies, while drawing attention to the unexpected (the event, the encounter, the disturbance) which challenge hegemonic representations of landscapes. This focus on situated and performative entanglement of social and material relations has important implications for insurgent planning practice and theory. Such creative productions of emotional geographies, grounded in particular places and socialities, may foster new imaginaries and generate new and innovative spaces of engagement and oppositional planning practices. Drawing on performativity and non-representational theory, this article proposes a reimagining of insurgent planning that takes into account everyday practices and meaning-making but also the materiality of landscape in particular places. The theoretical discussion draws on the example of household plant production and vermicomposting in Los Platanitos, Santo Domingo Norte, Dominican Republic. The article describes the performative relationships between people, plants, and worms in Los Platanitos, examining the ways in which this relationality serves as a locus for insurgent planning practices in the face of a major stormwater project.