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Knowledge in Action for Urban Equality (KNOW): The challenges of translocal knowledge co-production

Davies Reading Room Room 2.27, Environmental and Geographical Science, UCT, Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa

Join ACC as we host Caren Levy, Camila Cocina and Alex Frediani from KNOW on Friday, 15 November, 12:30 to 14:00, in the Davies Reading Room, Environmental and Geographical Sciences Building, Upper Campus, UCT. This talk, chaired by Vanessa Watson will introduce the KNOW programme, a 4-year research and capacity building programme funded by GCRF which works with 13 organisation across 12 cities in Africa, Asia and Latin America.  The talk will reflect on its partnerships, operational principles and the interface between research and practice.  It will draw on the KNOW work done so far as it approaches the end of its second year.  We hope that this session will open up an opportunity to exchange experiences of collaborative initiatives addressing urban equality. WHEN: Friday, 15 November 2019 TIME: 12:30 to 14:00 VENUE: Davies Reading Room, Environmental and Geographical Science Building, Upper Campus, UCT   BIOGRAPHIES Caren Levy is the Principal Investigator (PI) on the GCRF funded project, Knowledge in Action for Urban Equality (KNOW), and Professor of Transformative Urban Planning at The Bartlett Development Planning Unit, UCL. Her research focuses on community-led approaches to planning and governance of transport and infrastructure, housing and land in cities in the global South. Levy has a special interest in the institutionalisation of social justice in policy and planning, particularly related to the cross-cutting issues of gender, diversity, and environment. She has 35 years’ experience of teaching, research, training and consultancy, developing innovatory approaches to planning methodology, planning education and capacity-building. Her works engages with communities, governments and international organisations both in London and abroad in a range of countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. Camila Cocina is a Research Fellow in the working package 'Translating Research into Practice' for KNOW. We focus on investigating the challenges of knowledge translation processes at the global and local levels, and support city research partners to influence policy and planning practices. Cocina is an urbanist and architect with a PhD in Development Planning and MSc Building & Urban Design in Development, from The Bartlett Development Planning Unit, University College London. She's worked as a practitioner, researcher, and teacher in Chile and the UK, with experience of fieldwork and teaching in Latin America, Asia, Europe, and Africa. Her practice has focused primarily on urban development, housing policies, participatory urban design, urban informality, and housing reconstruction; and she's worked both in academic institutions as well as in independent NGOs. She has a special interest in linking research, advocacy, planning practices, and policies. Cocina's PhD research focused on the challenges faced by housing policies in reducing urban inequalities, in the Chilean context. Alex Frediani is a Senior Lecturer at The Bartlett Development Planning Unit. He also co-direct the MSc in Social Development Practice and direct the DPUs communications. In KNOW, he leadsWork Package 4, which focuses on translating research into practice to advance urban equality. His research interests include the application of Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach in development practice; participatory planning and design; as well as housing and informal settlement upgrading. Frediani has collaborated with academics and grassroots collectives in Brazil, Ecuador, Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Kenya, and South Africa. Apart from research and action learning initiatives, he has provided consultancy for international development donors and agencies such as Oxfam, Comic Relief, Practical Action and UNDP. He is a founding and board member of the Sierra Leone Urban Research Centre (SLURC). He is also on the board of Habitat International Coalition and an associate of Architecture Sans Frontières–UK.  

Relaunch: Cityscapes Magazine

The Book Lounge 71 Roeland Street, Cape Town, South Africa

African Centre for Cities invites you to the relaunch of Cityscapes Magazine on 19 November 2019, 17:30 at The Book Lounge. The new issue is themed 'Passages' is a collection of stories that explore the nature(s) of movement, the impact it has on how we live and who we are, as well as the lives that are made - mobile and immobile - after the passage. People move. That is what we do. We move our bodies, move house, neighbourhood; we move across and through borders. We move because we want to and sometimes because we need to. To be with or away from family, to adventure and experience new things, on pilgrimage, to escape, learn, and sometimes to return home when it calls us. We move through space, we move up(becoming wealthier, more affluent),down (becoming materially more impoverished), we also move ideas and resources. We move to work, to search, to find, and sometimes to lose. We move... It’s in our nature and has been since time immemorial. Yet, as the world becomes better connected, moving has become a challenging and divisive experience at every scale you can imagine. We are building and strengthening physical borders to keep those we feel are “not worthy” from occupying the same spaces we do, while inviting the “desirable” – the educated, “clever”, connected, wealthy and talented – in. Our interest is in where people move to, and why. Also, how ideas and capital circulate, traverse borders, and what the impacts are once “there”. This is the reason we have produced this issue. The ninth issue of Cityscapes and our new tagline—Urbanism Beyond Geography—marks a re-launch, after a hiatus (of sorts). As the abundance of figures being released on the topic attests, we have been moving to cities – everywhere. The magnetism of places larger than where we are from has attracted legions – for centuries – and is now just part of the human story. Cities are not a new construct, and moving to them is really not that new a phenomenon. What’s different is the scale. In many economies, cities are the places where opportunities lie, where dreams can be fulfilled—or dashed, but still given a chance—if you're one of the lucky ones. We will always move to such places. Some inner instinct demands that we do. What we have to figure out is how we live together once we get there. How the resources we have can be more equitably shared, and what we do when they are not. What do we do when the assets we have fuel distributional conflicts, understandably, with those who have been dealt a bad hand and have little to lose? We have dug up stories that explore the nature(s) of movement, the impact it has on how we live and who we are, as well as the lives that are made – be they mobile or immobile – after the passage. It seems we move so that we are able to move some more. We move so we can “do better”, jump from one station in life to another. We become mobile hoping that it will expand our choices and send us ever onward. Between these covers, we have tried to explore the question of what happens when we move to where we desire, or leave where we cannot be any more. In a “new” place, whether it’s for the short or long haul, how do we keep the ideas we hold dear? How do we, as “newcomers”, maintain the cultures that define us? How can we embrace our new situation in a manner that changes both us and our new settings? Often, the “new” is old too. It seeks to hold on to its idea of self and wants to be loved and embraced on its own terms. It does not want to lose itself to the influence of newcomers – reinforcements of sorts – that, willingly or not, are its lifeblood.  

Governance and politics of harnessing urbanisation for Sub-Saharan Africa’s urban development

Studio 3 Environmental and Geographical Sciences Building, Upper Campus, UCT, Cape Town, South Africa

Visiting scholar Prof Winnie Mitullah, of the Institute for Development Studies (IDS), University of Nairobi will present a seminar entitled Governance and politics of harnessing urbanisation for Sub-Saharan Africa’s urban development, on Tuesday, 3 December at 12:30 to 14:00 in Studio 3, EGS Building, Upper Campus, UCT. The session will be chaired by senior researcher Dr Liza Rose Cirolia. Urbanisation in Africa has attracted attention of scholars, policy makers and practitioners, but problems of urbanisation are seemingly insurmountable and are not being adequately  addressed. African cities are rapidly growing but contrary to conventional patterns, the population growth is not matched by economic growth and development. This inconsistency has resulted in the persistence of spatial, demographic, social, cultural, economic and environmental problems, which have diverted attention of the continent to studying and highlighting the problems of urbanisation, and theories which explain problems. This has left a gap in analysis in respect to harnessing opportunities for consolidating urbanisation and urban development. The seminar is part of a larger paper focusing on harnessing Africa’s urbanisation for sustainable urban development, concentrating on understanding how the unique aspects of Sub-Saharan Africa’s urbanisation, existing opportunities and related disruptions are being governed for Africa’s urban development. The seminar will provide context and review some of the explanations and related theories used to explain Sub-Saharan Africa’s urbanisation. This is aimed at setting the ground for exploring governance attributes and related politics which advance or undermine Africa’s urban development. A key question for exploration is how governance and politics enable or undermine tapping urbanisation opportunities for sustainable urban development. Transport infrastructure in the city of Cape Town and the city of Nairobi is used to dig out inherent governance and related politics which shroud the development of urban areas in Africa. The seminar will concentrate on the first part of this research which include review of context, urban growth, theoretical lenses and overview of mediation of transport infrastructure for sustainable urban development. WHEN: 3 December 2019 TIME: 12:30 to 14:00 VENUE: Studio 3, EGS Building, Upper Campus, UCT BIOGRAPHY Professor Winnie V. Mitullah is the current Director and Associate Research Professor of Development Studies at the Institute for Development Studies (IDS), and the Director Gender Affairs, University of Nairobi. She holds a PhD in Political Science and Public Administration from the University of York, UK. Her PhD thesis was on Urban Housing, with a major focus on policies relating to low income housing. Over the years, she has researched and consulted in the areas of governance, in particular in the area of provision and management of urban services and the role of stakeholders in development. Her focus in these areas has included an examination of policies, and institutional dynamics in relation to local level development, including that of devolved governments, Micro and Small Enterprises , public and Non Motorised Transport (NMT), gender, youth and media.

EXHIBITION: It all starts with me

The New Lecture Theatre Upper Campus, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

You are invited to a pop-up exhibition and book launch of the Youth, Identity and the City project together with Rosca Warries, Kirstin Warries, Dane Van Rooyen and TPA Youth for Change, on Thursday 5 December from 16:00. It all starts with me is a one-day exhibition based on the African Centre for Cities research project Youth, Identity and the City led by researcher Mercy Brown-Luthango, which engaged 13 out-of-school and unemployed young people from Mitchell’s Plain, Philippi and Gugulethu in a process of self-reflection using photography as a tool. The focus was on the role of young people in cities; how they understand their position, community, identity and location (spatially, emotionally and socially) in relation to the city as a whole, in this case Cape Town. As part of this process, led by noDREAD Productions and their photography workshop design Image vs Truth, each participant was furnished with two disposable cameras to capture photographs of the communities where they live as well as historical places visited in the city. As one of the final outputs of the project, with guidance from Rosca Warries, Kirstin Warries and Dane Van Rooyen, the young people undertook a process of curating an exhibition of these photographs. All the photographs are part of a moving exhibition from the University of Cape Town, for the launch, to Phillipi Village and Tafelsig Library where the participants’ peers and community can engage and encounter their messages and photographs of hope. WHEN: Thursday, 5th December 2019 TIME:  16:00 to 18:00 VENUE:  The New Lecture Theatre, Upper Campus, UCT RSVP: shakira.jeppie@uct.ac.za

Contested Knowledges for Just Urban Futures

Channing Hall 45 Surrey Street, Sheffield, United Kingdom

For urban scholars to be committed to more just urban futures is not new; yet the conditions and contexts from and in which academics engage are constantly changing. From means concerning ourselves with the context of the university itself, the distancing and / or proximity afforded by the university, the dynamics of the spaces from which we engage and the implications for our understanding of and relationships between knowledge and action. In means recognising that a  commitment and/or engagement to realising just urban futures is often practiced in the interstices, boundaries or margins of intersecting domains, in liminal spaces between the university and the urban context. Working from and in these different spaces requires reflexive engagement (May and Perry 2017) and adaptiveness and creativity in academic practice, as knowledge claims are challenged and contested in intentional and unanticipated ways. A range of issues are brought into focus: how we think about time, space, positionality and power; how competing or contesting knowledge claims affect our sense of belonging and our commitment; if (and how) these are mediated through inter-referential reflexivity. We need to pay attention to the peculiarities of these spaces and how these are navigated, negotiated and with what effects. This seminar asks: How does our commitment to just urban futures specifically manifest in practice, in the context of the wider co-productive turn and interest in different ideas about what it means to be an ‘engaged’ academic? Event details Tuesday, December 10, 2019 - 10:00 to 17:00 Channing Hall, 45 Surrey Street, Sheffield S1 2LG This seminar is explicitly aimed at established academic researchers working in universities, with a commitment to socially just and sustainable futures, to share and learn from practice. It will take place over one day with propositions, presentations and discussions and include an early evening dinner (1730-1900). The seminar is organised by Professors Tim May and Beth Perry with funding from the Economic and Social Research Council and the Realising Just Cities Programme (https://realisingjustcities-rjc.org/). It is also part of the Urban Institute's Co-producing Urbanisms theme. Provocations will be made by Professor Beth Perry, Urban Institute, University of Sheffield Dr Zarina Patel, University of Cape Town Dr Michele Lancione, Urban Institute, University of Sheffield Professor Felicity Callard, Birkbeck Institute for Social Research, University of London Dr Sally Lloyd Evans, University of Reading Professor Rowland Atkinson, Urban Studies and Planning, University of Sheffield Dr Lee Crookes, Urban Studies and Planning, University of Sheffield Dr Hayley Bennett, University of Edinburgh and Dr Richard Brunner, University of Glasgow Professor Doina Petrescu, University of Sheffield Click here for a detailed seminar programme and abstracts.   Places will be limited and booking is essential. If you would like to attend, please RSVP to v.l.simpson@sheffield.ac.uk with name, university and a couple of lines on your urban research and engagement activity.

Cities of integrity – innovative approaches to tackling corruption and cultivating a culture of integrity, trust and openness in urban development

Hall 2, Room 1 Abu Dhabi , United Arab Emirates

Cities of Integrity project hosts a panel discussion at the World Urban Forum in Abu Dhabi, on Sunday, 9 February 2020 from 14:00 to 16:00. Urban innovation flows from multiple actors securely, independently seeking opportunities for improvement of their livelihoods, their homes and their social fabric. Urban development that is underpinned by a culture of integrity, transparency and accountability is an essential condition minimising the risks that would otherwise block this innovation and investment. You may plan and wish for a prosperous, inclusive, equitable, resilient or sustainable city but if norms of integrity and openness are corroded by corruption none of these aspirations can be achieved. Our event will provide a platform to raise our shared understanding of the urban corruption risks at hand. We will discuss the latest facts and figures related to the major integrity challenges in urban development, their scale, scope and development over time in the cities of both the global north and south. At least equally important we will take this empirical overview as a point of departure to embark on a joint exploration of the innovative tools and approaches available to build and nurture strong cultures of integrity at the city scale. By weaving together insights and perspectives from urban planners, architects and urban policy-makers on the one side and experts and practitioners on transparency, integrity and governance we will launch an inspirational, interactive conversation around the many practical tools and innovative levers that can be activated to architect and nurture such cultures of urban integrity. Questions to explore with the audience include: what are the major ”integrity vulnerabilities” in urban development? What strategies to promote urban cultures of integrity have been found to be effective so far? What roles can the professional community of urban planners and architects play in addressing these integrity risks? What is a realistic contribution that new technologies can make beyond the hype that surrounds them? What responsibility falls to the private sector and what practical action is already coming from the business side? How can the creativity of urban place-making be harnessed? We will seek to explore these questions not just through a set of inspirational panel presentations but also by tapping into the expertise and creativity of the audience through interactive conversation formats. The aim is to provoke new thinking around these issues and plant the seeds for much needed new partnerships around urban integrity issues that harness the expertise and commitment of a diverse set of urban stakeholders. MODERATOR Adi Kumar – Development Action Group, South Africa PANELISTS Gilbert Siame – Centre for Urban Research and Planning, University of Zambia Jennifer Bretana – Hivos, Philippines Dieter Zinnbauer – African Center for Cities, South Africa and Copenhagen Business School, Denmark Alex Warnock-Smith – Central Saint Martins, United Kingdom WHEN: Sunday, 9 February 2020 TIME: 14:00 to 16:00 VENUE: Hall 2, Room 1, Abu Dhabi, UAE  

Academic Seminar: The edge economies of migration

Davies Reading Room Room 2.27, Environmental and Geographical Science, UCT, Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa

Join ACC as we host Suzanne Hall for a special academic seminar entitled The edge economies of migration on Tuesday, 25 February 2020 from 12:30 to 14:00 in the Davies Reading Room, Environmental and Geographical Sciences Building, Upper Campus, UCT. Camalita Naicker, of the Department of Historical Studies, University of Cape Town will act as a respondent. ABSTRACT ‘Edge Economies’ emerge in the asymmetries of global migration and the ongoing ferocities of urban marginalisation. From the grounded perspective of street economies formed in the peripheries of post-industrial UK cities, I explore the racialised frameworks of citizenship and economic inequality and their everyday contestations. I locate the global and urban formations of the edge in the European ideologies of displacement and immobility, incorporating the extended coloniality of political interventionism and human subordination. By moving between spaces of globe, state and street, I further explore the edge as a capricious space in which social sorting, cultural intermixtures and claims to difference are forged. Such combinations encourage connections between the histories and geographies of how people and places become bordered, together with practices of edge economies that are both marginal and transgressive. BIOGRAPHY Suzanne Hall is a Co-director of the Cities Programme and Associate Professor in Sociology at the LSE. Suzi’s research interests engage with the street life of brutal borders, migrant economies and urban multi-culture. WHEN: Tuesday, 25 February 2020 TIME: 12:30 - 14:00 VENUE: Davies Reading Room, Environmental and Geographical Sciences Building, Upper Campus, UCT  

Non-Motorised Transport Capabilities and Needs in Sub-Saharan African Cities

4th Floor Boardroom New Engineering Building, Cape Town , South Africa

Join ACC's researcher Sean Cooke for an open discussion on non-motorised transport capabilities and needs in Sub-saharan African cities. The two-hour session will start with a presentation by Bianca Ryseck on the capabilities approach and its applications to mobility followed by an open discussion to further understanding NMT needs of vulnerable groups through their capabilities. WHEN: Thursday, 27 February 2020 TIME: 14:00 to 16:00 VENUE: 4th Floor Boardroom, New Engineering Building, Upper Campus, UCT RSVP: sean.cooke@uct.ac.za Refreshments will be served.  

Book launch: Participatory Theatre and the Urban Everyday in South Africa

Breezeblock Cafe 29 Chiswick Street, Johannesburg, South Africa

The South African Research Chair in Spatial Analysis and City Planning within the Wits School of Architecture and Planning, the Chair in Local Histories and Present Realities at the History Workshop, also at Wits, and the African Centre for Cities at UCT would like to invite you to the joint launch of Njogu Morgan and Alexandra Halligey’s new books, with guest speakers, Ruth Oldenziel and Terry Kurgan. Cycling Cities: The Johannesburg Experience by Njogu Morgan and Participatory Theatre and the Urban Everyday in South Africa: Place and Play in Johannesburg by Alexandra Halligey will be jointly launched on 27 February at the Breezeblock Cafe, Johannesburg. Ruth Oldenziel, Professor in The History of Technology at Eindhoven University of Technology and programme leader of Cycling Cities: The Global Experience will speak to Morgan's book while Terry Kurgan, artist and writer based in Johannesburg, editor and partner of Fourthwall Books and Research Associate of the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research, will focus on Halligey's title.   DATE: Thursday, 27th February TIME: 17:00 for 17:30 VENUE: Breezeblock Café, 29 Chiswick Street, Brixton Please RSVP to alexandra.halligey@wits.ac.za by 24 February for catering and parking purposes.