African Centre for Cities presents its annual seminar series by the Notations of Theories of Radical Urban Change (NOTRUC) project. The 2017 series is entitled 'Thinking Emancipatory Change from Cape Town, Nairobi to New Orleans'.
African Centre for Cities presents its annual seminar series by the Notations of Theories of Radical Urban Change (NOTRUC) project. The 2017 series is entitled 'Thinking Emancipatory Change from Cape Town, Nairobi to New Orleans'.
Join ACC on Thursday, 8 March at 13:00 for the first in a series of Brownbag seminars. The hot topic of discussion is the winning bid for the redevelopment of the Foreshore Freeway Precinct, Cape Town. SPEAKERS Lisa Kane Kane is a Honorary Research Associate with the Centre for Transport Studies at UCT and co-founder and board member of Open Streets, Cape Town. Her PhD thesis considered the history and politics of engineering of the Foreshore freeway projects from its initiation to the 1980s, and how that period has informed current thinking around road engineering in South Africa. Rob McGaffin McGaffin is a town planner and land economist. He has worked as town planner with the City of Cape Town and the Gauteng Department of Economic Development, and in property finance at several financial institutions. He was a Mistra Urban Futures Researcher with the ACC. He lectures in the Department of Construction Economics and Management at the University of Cape Town and is a founding member of the UCT - Nedbank Urban Real Estate Research Unit. CHAIR Vanessa Watson WHEN: Thursday, 8 March 2018 TIME: 13:00 to 14:30 VENUE: Studio 5, Environmental and Geographical Sciences Building, Upper Campus, University of Cape Town
“Cultural planning sits at the intersection of people, places and policies— It provides a framework for addressing the needs and objectives of a city’s cultural sector and cultural life including arts, culture and heritage groups and practitioners that shape a city’s cultural ecosystem.” Dr Rike Sitas will facilitate a discussion between three panelists that will look at how cultural mapping and planning responds to different research contexts depending on the questions asked and the way in which every day cultural practises unfold in different communities, namely, Hanover Park and Mannenberg, Cosmo City and Mitchells Plain. The overall aims of this research is to unearth some of the cultural practises and narratives in deprived communities in South African cities and how people navigate and express themselves despite the lack of material resources and services. These types of research projects also help to inform policy around arts and cultural services for local government. BIOS Shamila Rahim is a cultural worker and activist who has worked extensively in the Arts, Cultural and Heritage sector in Cape Town for the last 25 years. Currently she works at City of Cape Town as a Professional Officer in the Arts and Culture Branch. Her interests are in understanding and using arts, culture and heritage as agents to facilitate mind set change which empower the individual to voice and become active in creating positive narratives of themselves and society as a whole. Vaughn Sadie is a conceptual artist, educator and researcher, living and working in Cape Town (South Africa). He is currently registered in the PhD Programme at the Urban Futures Centre at the Durban University of Technology and work at African Centre for Cities as a researcher. He is interested in interdisciplinary and participatory practices, and the place of art in various social contexts. Alicia Fortuin is a Masters Graduate from the School of Architecture and Planning where she completed her Masters degree in City and Regional Planning. Her Dissertation looked at the Spaces of and for Participation in the Restitution of land in District Six. It is through this research process where her interests in urban governance, rights, community participation and healing and memory evolved. She has most recently received the Pan African College Phd Scholarship at the African Centre for Cities, where she will be embarking on a PHD journey which will look at the impacts and of land use dynamics and urban sprawl on young professionals in Cape Town.
The FCDO-funded Global Integrity Anti Corruption Evidence Programme supports research teams in not only creating actionable evidence, but deepening engagement with practitioners. The Cities of Integrity research team have tried many different ways to communicate research more effectively with practitioners. Over the course of the project they have developed a series of animated videos illustrating the specific issues of corruption in urban planning and its consequences for cities and their publics. These animations have been used in workshops, social media, and direct engagement with particular groups such as early career planners. As part of this event the team will screen the series followed by a panel discussion with the animators, the research team, and a representative from the Zambian Institute of Planners. We will discuss the advantages and limitations of using animated film in workshops and communications around integrity-strengthening as a response to corruption in planning. The Cities of Integrity team will reflect on their experience working with the production house in translating their research into accessible language and visuals and hone in on the question of impact together with the Zambian Institute of Planners as a key stakeholder. Join us for the official premiere of their three-part series of animated shorts. Zoom Registration PanelistsBart Love - Director, AnotherLoveProduction, Cape TownLaura Nkula-Wenz - Cities of Integrity, Project Coordinator, African Centre for CitiesVanessa Watson - Cities of Integrity, Principal Investigator, University of Cape TownGilbert Siame - Cities of Integrity, Co- Principal Investigator, University of ZambiaPlanner from Zambian Institute of Planning (ZIP) Anotherlove Productions has been creating engaging visual content for clients from around the world for over a decade. They believe that a well-told visual story - be it an animation, a documentary or an infographic - can challenge, encourage and activate audiences whilst shifting perceptions. For this creative team, a rigorous and engaged production process is as valuable as the final product. They are happiest when their clients have enjoyed working with them, and they have a piece of meaningful and effective media at the end of it. The Zambian Institute of Planning is a professional corporate body established by the Urban and Regional Planners Act of 2011 of the Laws of Zambia to register and regulate the practice of planning in Zambia Prof. Vanessa Watson is an emerita professor at the School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics, University of Cape Town. She is the Principal Investigator for the Cities of Integrity project. Dr. Gilbert Siame is a lecturer at the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of Zambia (UNZA) as well as the Co-PI and Zambia research lead for Cities of Integrity. Dr. Laura Nkula-Wenz is a lecturer at the African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town and the project lead for Cities of Integrity.
African Centre for Cities (ACC) invites you to join us for an in-person seminar with Dr James Duminy, ACC Honorary Research Associate, and Lecturer at the School of Geographical Sciences, and Bristol Poverty Institute, at the University of Bristol. The seminar entitled Thinking problematically about the city: Planning as a site of innovation, takes place on Friday, 12 August at 12:00-13:15. ABSTRACT Urban innovation cannot be limited to the harnessing of technologies sourced from the private sector, civil society engagements, and the entrepreneurial spirit of informality within models of governance that position the city as a laboratorial site of experimentation. What government does, and what built environment professions do, in and through governance-related activities, including the establishment of durable procedures of government, must be incorporated into the purview of urban innovation. Yet, typically the place and role of the state within urban governance remains caught within a limiting critique of neoliberalism or a depiction of the state as incorrigible, at best, and oppressive, at worst. Planning, for its part, is presented in some critical accounts as a monolithic domain of state stasis; a procedural system for the reproduction of pre-existing and future inequalities. However, an alternative view of city transformation would place urban planning as a potential driver of governance innovation. Here we draw upon recent experiences of planning reform in South Africa, focusing on the development and application of a process known as the Built Environment Performance Plan (BEPP), to consider the implications of seeing the state as a site of problematization, and planning as a site of innovation in urban governance. Such a perspective draws attention to the temporalities of response, rupture, uneven institutionalization, and setback that attend acts and processes of innovation unfolding within the state. It highlights the demand for successful innovations to navigate cross-sectoral and multi-scalar imperatives, and draws attention to the enduring need to establish meaningful links between the fiscus and other modes and instruments of governance that can sustain or transform urban regimes. WHEN | Friday, 12 August 2022 TIME | 12:00-13:15pm VENUE | Studio 3, Environmental and Geographical Sciences Building, Upper Campus, UCT
Join ACC as we host a seminar by Jocelyn Poe, Visiting Assistant Professor and Provost Faculty Fellow at Cornell University, for a seminar entitled On Trauma Imaginaries: Exploring the Intersections of Race, Place, and Planning, on Tuesday, 14 February at 3:30.
African Centre for Cities hosts visiting scholar Marco Di Nunzio for a seminar entitled On tactical planning, on Thursday, 11 May 2023, from 13:00-14:00.
