Who Builds, Who Belongs: A Critical Framework for Analyzing
Urban Reconstruction Proposals
Name
zia-manalzia-mcp-dusp-2025-thesis.pdf
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5.95 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
4bc302df3ed141785f1178ba68df543e
Author(s)
Zia, Manal
Advisor(s)
Wendel, Delia
Date Issued
May 2025
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
Reconstruction remains one of the most depoliticized and technocratic domains within urban planning and post-conflict recovery discourse. In contexts of ongoing settler-colonial violence, it must be reimagined as a political and territorial struggle rather than a neutral act of rebuilding. This thesis examines the politics of reconstruction in Gaza, Palestine, following the events of October 7, 2023, where rebuilding initiatives emerged amid continuous warfare, siege, and spatial erasure. A range of post-October 7 proposals are analyzed through a Critical Framework for Reconstruction Analysis, centered on [1] Power Relations and the Politics of Repair, [2] Redistributive Justice and Reparative Planning, [3]
Autonomy Under Constraint: Economies, Institutions, and the Politics of Survivability and [4] Spatial Justice. Drawing on document analysis, semi-structured interviews, and critical urban theory, the research interrogates how reconstruction efforts negotiate, reinforce, or resist colonial domination. Ultimately, the thesis offers both a critical methodological framework and the foundations for an ethical, trauma-
informed Code of Conduct to guide reconstruction practices in contexts of protracted violence, while advancing a radical reimagining of futures under sustained dispossession.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Urban Studies and Planning
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