Epistemic Justice and the Politics of Planning Knowledge Production in Nigerian Urban Studies

The production of planning knowledge about Nigerian cities has been shaped by epistemic hierarchies that privilege Northern academic frameworks, methodological conventions, and problem framings over locally-grounded ways of knowing and planning. This doctoral study examines the politics of planning knowledge production in Nigerian urban studies from an epistemic justice perspective, making an original theoretical contribution to planning epistemology and methodology. Drawing on feminist standpoint theory, Southern theory, and decolonial scholarship, the research analyses how knowledge about Nigerian cities is produced, validated, and translated into planning practice. Empirical work involves a sociology of planning knowledge study combining bibliometric analysis of Nigerian urban planning publications from 2000 to 2024, 80 interviews with Nigerian planning academics, practitioners, and community-based researchers across 12 institutions and cities, and a critical discourse analysis of planning curricula in eight Nigerian universities. The analysis documents whose knowledge counts in Nigerian planning, what methodological norms govern research, how community-generated spatial knowledge is treated in planning decisions, and how the relationship between international development epistemology and local planning knowledge is institutionalized. Original theoretical contributions include a Framework for Epistemic Justice in African Urban Planning Knowledge Production and a Decolonial Planning Research Methodology Typology. The study challenges Nigerian planning education and practice to engage more substantively with Indigenous spatial knowledge, participatory knowledge production, and methodological pluralism. Contributions advance both planning theory and the sociology of planning knowledge globally. Keywords: Epistemic justice, Planning knowledge, Decolonial, Nigerian urban studies, Planning theory.