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The urban network strategy – the panacea for urban and developmental ills?

Seminar Room 1 Environmental & Geographical Sciences Building, UCT Upper Campus

The ACC looks forward to generating a stimulating debate about the Cities Support Programme by hosting Dr Paul Hendler from iNSITE who will be presenting a paper co-authored by himself and Dr Arumugam Pillay (who will be present via Skype) entitled, 'The urban network strategy - the panacea for urban and developmental ills'. Abstract The National Treasury, through its Cities Support Programme (CSP), intends to get the eight metropolitan municipalities to run more efficiently, become financially and ecologically sustainable and give the majority of their citizens access to employment and public and social amenities. The weakness of the strategy is its assumption of the inevitable upswing in the global business cycle, the ability of cities to afford the infrastructure required for ongoing in-migration and the fact that it omits describing how broad-based, inclusive and eco-sensitive economic development with significant employment opportunities should happen. The missing factor in the programme is state intervention aimed at economic restructuring: it simply assumes that both job creation and green manufacturing will happen without explaining how. Instead, the paper argues that the challenge is to address the broader political economy context of sluggish growth, low wages and high unemployment, in order to support key CSP objectives. In this regard, the paper identifies specifically the need for municipalities as public sector developers to directly support2 improved quality of life and work opportunities for both the urban and rural working classes, and for the state to stem the outflow of funds from the country, re-direct investment funds away from finance, insurance and real estate (the jobless growth sectors) and into manufacturing and implement a coherent rural development based on technical and financial support for feasible ‘accumulation from below’ by current smallholder farmers and households in traditional areas. Bio Dr Paul Hendler is an extraordinary senior lecturer at the University of Stellenbosch's School of Public Management, and a founder of iNSITE that is working (through the Sustainability Institute, Stellenbosch University) on the formulation of a financial mechanism for the investment of a civil society green savings fund in South Africa. Hendler has been researching the intersection of housing and the political economy for over 30 years in South Africa, with an emphasis on critiquing neoliberal development. Dr Arumugam (Morgan) Pillay is CEO of The Ekurhuleni Development Company. He is responsible for delivery of finance to and Social Housing. Pillay has almost 25 years of experience in Infrastructure Development and Finance within the government sector. Having worked at the National Housing Finance Corporation, Standard Corporate and Merchant Bank, and advising national and provincial government departments, he is one of South Africa’s housing finance experts that has both theoretical and practical experience in the sector.

World-class city making in Africa – a view from Angola through the redevelopment of the Bay of Luanda

Seminar Room 1 Environmental & Geographical Sciences Building, UCT Upper Campus

The ACC is happy to announce the first academic seminar for 2016. Dr Sylvia Croese will be presenting a paper entitled, 'World-class city making in Africa – a view from Angola through the redevelopment of the Bay of Luanda'. Abstract This paper examines the redevelopment of the Bay of Luanda as the epitome of a process of world-class city making that has unfolded in the capital of Angola since the end of the war in 2002. In an era that has been marked by ‘Africa’s rise’, concomitant efforts towards the building of world-class African cities have generated growing research interest over the past years. However, often these efforts are seen as uncritically adopted or externally imposed imitations of global/world city models. This paper aims to take world-class city making in Luanda seriously by analyzing its dynamics on its own terms, thereby moving beyond accounts that either romanticize or demonize this process. Based on an analysis of the history of the Bay of Luanda and the actors, discourse and imaginaries involved in its redevelopment, the paper makes three interrelated arguments. Firstly, it argues that while discourses underpinning world-class city making may reflect external or economic drivers, such as a desire to attract international investment, the case of Luanda shows that this practice can be equally or even more strongly driven by internal or political objectives, such as the pursuit of national legitimacy and domestic stability. From this follows that world-class city making in Africa does not necessarily have to be externally imposed, managed or financed, but that it can also be ‘home-grown’ and led by national rather than city governments, especially in resource-rich and authoritarian states like Angola. Finally, the paper argues that while the mainstream world-class city literature tends to focus on the futuristic nature of world-class city aesthetics, the redevelopment of the Bay of Luanda shows how efforts to revive modernist colonial architecture may equally underpin world-class city making. The study of world-class city making should then not only consider ‘introspective’ vs ‘extrospective’ politics but also ‘retrospective’ rationales or the ways in which utopia and nostalgia intersect across time and space. Bio Dr Sylvia Croese is a post-doctoral research fellow at the department of Sociology at the University of Cape Town. She has written and conducted extensive research in and on Angola as a researcher and consultant and has an interest in issues related to housing and urban development, local governance and electoral politics in Africa.

Informal Settlement as Complex Adaptive Assemblage

Seminar Room 1 Environmental & Geographical Sciences Building, UCT Upper Campus

The ACC is delighted to be hosting Prof Kim Dovey who will be presenting a paper entitled 'Informal Settlement as Complex Adaptive Assemblage'. Abstract Informal urbanism, from informal settlements to economies and street markets, is integral to cities of the global South – economically, socially, environmentally and aesthetically. This paper seeks to unfold and re-think this informal/formal conception using two interconnected theoretical frameworks. First is assemblage theory derived from the work of Deleuze and Guattari, in which a series of twofold concepts such as rhizomic/tree and smooth/striated resonate with the informal/formal construct. Second is theory on complex adaptive systems, in which dynamic and unpredictable patterns of self-organisation emerge with certain levels of resilience or vulnerability. These approaches are drawn together into the concept of a complex adaptive assemblage, illustrated with brief snapshots of urban informality drawn from Southeast Asian cities. The research challenge is to develop multi-disciplinary, multi-scalar methodologies to explore the ways in which informality is linked to squatting, corruption and poverty on the one hand, and to growth, productivity and creativity on the other. Bio Kim Dovey is Professor of Architecture and Urban Design at the University of Melbourne. He has published widely on social issues in architecture, urban design and planning.  Books include 'Framing Places' (Routledge, 2008), 'Fluid City' (UNSW Press 2005), ‘Becoming Places’ and the forthcoming ‘Urban Design Thinking’ (Bloomsbury).  He leads research projects on informal settlements, transit-oriented development and creative clusters.

BROWN BAG POSTPONED: Dwelling on the edge of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Seminar Room 1 Environmental & Geographical Sciences Building, UCT Upper Campus

PLEASE NOTE THIS BROWN BAG HAS BEEN POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE AS UCT STUDENTS ARE PROTESTING FOR FAIR FEES. In this brown bag, Dr Rick Miller will be giving a talk on informal settlements in Mongolia. Overview This talk will begin by introducing informal settlement in Ulaanbaatar - the ‘ger districts’. I will start by noting how Mongolia’s forms of informality are unique, with the actual housing type of the ger being an accepted and even valorized emblem of domesticity, and the ger district settlement pattern itself  pre-dating much of the core, fixed structures of the city.  But Mongolia-specific characteristics aside, the issues of informal settlement in Ulaanbaatar may still provide a more generalizable model for extending urbanization in other cities struggling to house their citizenry, particularly for recalibrating legal regimes for making informality part of a solution to housing. Bio Rick Miller’s approach to studying informal settlements across cities of the developing world is informed by his training as both an architect and a social scientist.  Rick is a travelling faculty member of the School for International Training program on Cities in the 21st Century and a lecturer in the Department of Geography at UCLA, from which he received his PhD.

Contested Cartographies: Remapping Cape Town

Seminar Room 1 Environmental & Geographical Sciences Building, UCT Upper Campus

In this brown bag, Ian-Malcolm Rijsdijk will introduce a working concept for new ways of understanding Cape Town. Overview: This concept presentation considers the mapping, naming, routing, disambiguations, planning, and compartmentalising of contemporary Cape Town. Using as a basis the idea of an atlas containing multiple maps of the city, this project considers expansions, degradings, mergings and rendings that have transformed the city over time not only from a spatial perspective, but also culturally. How are people ‘emplaced’ in the city? What does the city look like to people based upon their distinct cultural belongings? What lies beneath our feet and flies above our heads? This concept is both multi- and trans-disciplinary, bringing together social scientists working in urban studies, activists, artists, and writers to re-think the way the city looks to those who live in it, to lift the map off the surface of the page and re-form it. About the speaker: Ian-Malcolm Rijsdijk is a senior lecturer in the Centre for Film and Media Studies, and director of the African Cinema Unit at the University of Cape Town. He has published widely on the filmmaker Terrence Malick (the subject of his PhD), as well as South African film, wildlife documentary and literary fiction. He is currently working on early South African cinema and film cultures in South Africa. As Director of the African Cinema Unit, he teaches in the MA in African Cinema and is also involved in developing postgraduate scholarship in African and South African screen studies. He is also a member of the Environmental Humanities South research program at the University of Cape Town. In 2013, he received a Distinguished Teacher’s Award from the University of Cape Town, and in 2014 a National Excellence in Teaching award from the Higher Education Teaching and Learning Association of South Africa. He is a fanatical birder and registered at lasser with the South African Bird Atlas project. One day he would like to see a Wandering Albatross.  

DALI project (DFID land based financing)

Seminar Room 1 Environmental & Geographical Sciences Building, UCT Upper Campus

Ian Palmer and Stephen Berrisford will share an overview of the key findings of the DFID land based financing project, focussing on land value capture and infrastructure finance in Sub-Saharan Africa. Overview: The rapid growth of African Cities brings with it a burgeoning demand for infrastructure. But the finance available to cities to build this infrastructure is constrained. Therefore opportunities offered by land-based financing are most important. A team based at the African Centre for Cities has recently completed a significant research project on this topic for the UK Department for International Development.  The findings from this research will provide the primary input for this brownbag session, which will deal with the nature of urban infrastructure, the institutions involved in providing infrastructure, an overview of capital financing options and specific opportunities for using land-based finance. It will also touch on the role of property developers in providing and/or financing infrastructure, the role of cities in raising finance associated with property developments and associated policy considerations.  Findings from case studies conducted in Ethiopia, Kenya and Zimbabwe will also be reflected in the presentation. Bios: Stephen Berrisford is an independent consultant working in the field of urban planning law and policy in Southern Africa. He holds BA LLB and MCRP degrees from UCT and an MPhil in Land Economy from the University of Cambridge. Prior to establishing Stephen Berrisford Consulting in 2000 he held the post of Director: Land Development Facilitation at the national Department of Land Affairs and before that worked in the planning departments of the Cape Town and Johannesburg municipalities. During 2010 he was a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Town and Regional Planning at the University of Sheffield. His clients include the major international development agencies as well as all three spheres of government in South Africa. Stephen’s work focuses on the identification of practical and just legal solutions to the challenges of rapid urban growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. He has regularly published academic articles and book chapters since 1996 and has presented papers at a wide range of international conferences. Ian Palmer is a founding partner of Palmer Development Group (PDG). PDG is a leading consultancy in South Africa in the field of municipal services policy, research, strategy and management. He has 37 years experience in the fields of civil engineering and development. Over the last 25 years, 19 of which he has been the managing partner and then managing director of PDG, he has been the team leader on over 100 projects in the realm of public sector service delivery including the fields of: municipal services planning, municipal finance, inter-governmental relations, water and sanitation, housing, roads and public transport. He has degrees in civil engineering, economics and environmental engineering. Ian is also an Adjunct Professor at UCT attached to the African Centre for Cities.

Options for Reducing Violence in South African Cities

Seminar Room 1 Environmental & Geographical Sciences Building, UCT Upper Campus

South Africa is home to some of the world’s most violent cities, with homicide rates well above global and national averages. While the homicide rate is a strong indicator of urban violence, it does not capture non-lethal violence, which is often hidden from public view, in the home or in institutions. In order to create safer spaces in which women, men, girls, and boys can live, policy makers and practitioners need to know which sort of interventions work, and which don’t. This event brings together findings from two lines of work, the African Centre for Cities’ research and analysis on the impact of informal settlement upgrading on safety and overall quality of life and the Safe and Inclusive Cities initiative which seeks to understand the drivers of urban violence and how they relate to poverty and inequalities. Discussion will focus on identifying concrete options for improving safety in South Africa’s cities. This event is free, but space is limited. Please RSVP to mercy.brown-luthango@uct.ac.za AGENDA 4:00 Welcome and opening remarks by Prof. Gordon Pirie (ACC) and Ms. Cam Do (IDRC) 4:20 Conversation with: Dr. Mercy Brown-Luthango, ACC – Improving Safety for Informal Settlement Dwellers: Urban Upgrading Dr. Hugo van der Merwe, CSVR – Reducing violence while reducing poverty: The Community Work Program Dr. Juan Pablo Pérez Sáinz, FLACSO-Costa Rica – Lessons for South Africa from Central America 5:10 Questions and Answers 6:00 Close Light refreshments will be served.   About the Presenters Dr. Mercy Brown-Luthango has a background in Sociology of Work and has an interest in the economics of land use planning and social mobilisation among poor communities. She has worked on a diverse range of research topics, including the “brain drain” in South Africa, labour practices on wine farms, gender relations in the workplace, and the effect of global restructuring in the wine industry on South African producers. Currently, Dr. Brown-Luthango is a Research Officer with the African Centre for Cities. Dr. Hugo van der Merwe is trained in Conflict Analysis and Resolution and specializes in issues of transitional justice in South Africa and the African continent. He has led several research projects evaluating the impact of local and national transitional justice processes. Currently, Dr. van der Merwe is the Head of Research at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation in South Africa. Dr. Juan Pablo Pérez Sáinz is a Sociologist and expert in the labour market, poverty, and local economic development. He has published widely on these topics in addition to employment, globalization, social structures, and many others. Since 1981, Dr. Pérez Sáinz has worked as a researcher with FLACSO, the Faculdad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences). He is currently based at FLACSO-Costa Rica.   The African Centre for Cities' work presented at this event is supported by the Inclusive Violence and Crime Prevention (VCP) programme which is implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. Safe and Inclusive Cities is a joint initiative of the UK’s Department for International Development and Canada’s International Development Research Centre.