Publication: Culture-Based Justice Architecture : Building Community Wellbeing through Deeper Cultural Engagement
Date
2010-01
ISSN
Published
2010-01
Author(s)
Kirke, Philip James
Abstract
Law and the culture of law find their
expression in the many facets of the law's
institutions. One of the most visible of these is the
architecture of the places in which the legal process is
enacted. Through architecture it is possible to communicate
widely variant cultural perspectives on the rule of law. In
contemporary Australia, an advanced and successful
democracy, Aboriginal families continue to experience
grossly disproportionate incarceration rates in the justice
and correctional institutional systems, often in
demonstrably inappropriate environments. Most commentators
agree that a significant contributing factor to
overrepresentation in these institutions is the high degree
of cultural loss that Aboriginal Australia has suffered, and
continues to suffer. This paper argues that part of the
solution lies in an acknowledgment of and engagement with
Aboriginal culture where it persists as an evident and
potentially viable feature of Aboriginal communities.
Anthropologists, sociologists, Aboriginal advocates and
linguists have furnished tools necessary to implement a
culturally literate understanding in the endeavors of law
reformers, architects and agents of economic development.
Nevertheless there remains at political and key
administrative levels, significant pockets of resistance to
such an approach to reform. The author, a practicing
architect specializing in the design of a broad range of
facilities in cross cultural environments, draws upon
successful examples of both built works and projects to
demonstrate a proven approach to tackling the problem
successfully. It is suggested that whilst the cultural
circumstances of Aboriginal Australia are unique, the
underlying principles of the approach advanced by this paper
may be broadly applicable in many of the projects supported
by the World Bank and others working towards the advancement
of justice reform through the implementation of practical
initiatives in communities.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Kirke, Philip James. 2010. Culture-Based Justice Architecture : Building Community Wellbeing through Deeper Cultural Engagement. Justice and development working paper series;no. 10. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/18105 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”