ACC’s newest book from its CityLab programme is the climax of the three-year-long Philippi CityLab led by Mercy Brown-Luthango.

The book features essays by various experts working in/on the Phillipi area  as well as interviews with members of the Philippi community that include a land developer, a ward councillor, a farmer, a community leader and an activist among other residents.. The texts and images peel back the relationships between the local government and the community in a part of Cape Town characterised by disagreements about land, and by marginality of all kinds. The lavishly illustrated hardcover book is 314 pages.

The volume is edited by Luthango-Brown and includes contributions by Gerry Adlard; Jane Battersby; Robert McGaffin; Gareth Haysom; Rike Sitas; Laura Drivdal; Eitan Adams and Nigel Tapela; Patricia Zweig and Suzall Timm.

Funding for the CityLab and the book was from the Mistra Urban Futures network (funded by the Mistra Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency), the Provincial Government of the Western Cape (Department of Human Settlements), and the City of Cape Town.