Constructing community: communitarian planning, architecture, and art in the new Iraq

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  • February 28, 2019
Creator
  • Boyer, Matthew
    • College of Arts and Sciences, Department of City and Regional Planning
Abstract
  • This project presents a multi-media description (photos, drawings, maps, original documents, etc.) and analysis of a set of civil development projects that I envisioned, proposed, and supervised while assigned as a platoon leader in C Troop, 1st Squadron, 10th U.S. Cavalry. C Troop conducted stability, counter-insurgency, and reconstruction operations in the Balad Ruz area of eastern Diayala Province, Iraq from November 2003 to February 2004. During that period, prior to any mature project management bureaucracy, I received access to civil development opportunities and funds generally limited to Civil Affairs teams and Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs). As the originator of these projects and many of their founding ideas, my experience has both enabled and hindered full assessment of the processes and their outcomes. My participation in the deliberations and decisions enables the detailed description included here, but also challenges my capacity for unbiased evaluation of the procedural errors and resulting shortfalls. This is an unresolved tension, created by my dual roles as actor and assessor, that is evident throughout this project. The reader will notice numerous referrals to me as the arbitrator and final decider for the design and development of these projects, especially Ettihad. These personal allusions are not intended to advance a personally favorable view of the development process, but to provide an honest recounting of the process. This deference to my own "vision" and "education", as subsequent research and reflection strongly suggests, correlates with a number of the challenges I experienced. This project is intended to provide an in-depth account of civil reconstruction in a foreign culture in order to explore the challenges, discuss the lessons learned, and propose recommendations to improve similar reconstruction endeavors undertaken by American civilian and military entities in the future.
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Rights statement
  • In Copyright
Advisor
  • Campanella, Thomas
Degree
  • Master of City and Regional Planning
Degree granting institution
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Language
Location
  • Diyālá, Diyālá, Iraq
  • Qada Balad Ruz, Diyālá, Iraq
Extent
  • 76 p.
Access right
  • Open access
Date uploaded
  • December 10, 2010

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