The making of cities is an essentially cultural act in itself, and the globe has entered a profoundly urban age where cities in Africa are urbanising at a rapid rate. Although culture plays a fundamental part in people’s lives, a sensitivity to what this means in urbanisation processes can sometimes be overlooked. Culture in this context can include a wide range of beliefs and activities, which underpin the everyday lives of people in every corner of the globe.
Funded by the SA-EU Dialogue Facility under the EU-SA Strategic Partnership, the purpose of this exchange was to provide a platform for dialogue between SA and EU partners about the role of cultural mapping, planning and impact assessment in promoting sustainable and just cities. We find ourselves in an unprecedented moment where global policy imperatives are increasingly recognising the role of culture as key in creating liveable cities. The Sustainable
Development Goals, The African Union’s Agenda 2063, Habitat’s New Urban Agenda, and the UCLG’s Agenda 21 for Culture share a commitment to think of sustainability in environmental, economic, social, cultural and political terms. Despite these ideals, how these land in particular contexts – and specifically on the African continent – has yet to be adequately explored and understood. This SA-EU dialogue brought together a variety of South African and European practitioners, academics and experts to explore through study trips, best practice and case studies sharing and exchange, the role of culture in urban development. This SA-EU Dialogue focused on the following three dimensions:
- Policy instruments
- Good practice
- Dialogue
In order to explore the opportunities posed by cultural mapping, planning and impact assessment, a series of European and African cases were drawn on that exemplify good practice.
These included: STEPS Pilot: Lisbon (Intercultural Cities Programme, Council of Europe); Paris-Métropole: Une Cartographie Culturelle de Paris-Métropole; LivingMaps Network: The Citizens Atlas of London; City of Espoo, Finland: EspooCult; City of Leeds Cultural Strategy; Exit 15, Ballyogan in Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County; Creative Citizens, Ballymena, Northern Ireland; Gothenburg Culture Hub: Cultural Impact Assessment Tool; City of Cape Town Cultural Mapping and Planning Programme; Sticky Situations End Street North Project, Johannesburg; African Digital Heritage: Mau Mau Reconstruction, Nairobi; Port et Passages: Jën Rekk, Senegal; Earthlore: Venda Eco-Cultural Mapping, Black Studio Gqom Spatialities.
The following recommendations emerged out of the dialogue and research process. At the time of compiling this report, the Coronavirus pandemic is sweeping the globe, having a radical impact on the collective and cultural life worldwide, underscoring the importance of understanding the role of culture in responding and building back a cohesive and just society.
Shifting and strengthening narratives of culture based development that include a wider range of cultural activities, that value tangible and intangible dimensions to culture and heritage
- Land the value of culture in sustainable and just urban development more coherently
- Value tangible and intangible and the relationship between the two in policy and practice
Policy, legislation and enabling instruments that support cultural mapping, planning and impact assessment in just and sustainable urban development
- Identify and share key policy and legislation levers that connect across cultural and urban policy at national, provincial and local levels
- Legislate the integration of cultural mapping, planning and impact assessment in national cultural policy mandates
- Legislate the integration of cultural mapping, planning and impact assessment processes into urban development policy, particularly at the city scale
- Ensure better integration of urban development policy requirements and needs into cultural mapping, planning and impact assessment
- Enable co-production processes between city officials, civil society and scholars to identify impact indicators and find mechanisms to institutionalise them within local government
- Include the mandate of civil society organisations and community and cultural activists within policy implementation procedures
- Recognise where policy and legislation will be unhelpful
Governance, financing and implementation
- Identify and distinguish between national, provincial and local government roles in governance and financing
- Identify and clearly articulate the role of urban authorities in cultural mapping, planning and impact assessment
- Ensure that local authorities play an enabling role
- Identify and clearly articulate the role of civil society in cultural mapping, planning and impact assessment
- Ensure governance is distributed between public and civic actors
- Build appropriate capacity in public and civic sectors
- Ring-fence finance in relevant urban and cultural development budgets at a local, provincial and national level
- Establish partnerships with private and civic entities to enable a wide range of resources
Processes, tactics methods and ‘the multiplier effect’
- Use evidence-based project planning that is responsive to local contexts and power dynamics
- Entrench inclusionary, participatory and coproduced methods in cultural mapping, planning and impact assessment projects to ensure citizen engagement
- Use mixed methods approaches to cultural mapping, planning and impact assessment that produce both quantitative and qualitative data
- Ensure creative forms of research underpin cultural mapping, planning and impact assessment projects
- Communicate the findings of cultural mapping, planning and impact assessment projects to various stakeholders regularly
- View cultural mapping, planning and impact assessment as an on-going process that has short, medium- and long-term objectives
Further research
- Action-oriented research into cultural values and impact assessment
- Research into capacity development for cultural mapping, planning and impact assessment