ACC invites you to join us as we host the editor of Critical Neighbourhoods – The Architecture of Contested Communities, Paulo Moreira, Porto-based architect and researcher on Wednesday, 15 February for a lunchtime talk on the book.
Many urban studies journals publish few articles from African-based scholars: how can this be changed? While in "international" northern-based journals publishing the work of African based scholars seems to remain a challenge for editors, African scholars have organised many dynamic venues for publishing urban and African studies research. We have invited African-based scholars who have been involved in leading these initiatives to share their experiences; and editors working on Western-based journals to respond. We will hear from four African urban scholars, and then three editors of urban studies journals will respond. French Language translation will be available. Panelists- Edgar Pieterse (founding director of the African Centre for Cities; Professor of Urban Policy, University of Cape Town)- Saheed Aderinto (founder, Lagos Studies Association; Professor of African History at Western Carolina University)- Nadine Machikou (editor, Politique Africaine; Professor of political science at the University of Yaoundé)- Kingsley Madueke (Centre for Conflict Management & Peace Studies, University of Jos, Nigeria; PhD University of Amsterdam) Respondents- Vanessa Watson (Global South editor of Urban Studies; Emerita Professor of City Planning in the School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics and a founder member of the African Centre for Cities)- Liza Weinstein (Editor, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research (ijurr); Associate Professor of Sociology and Chair of the Sociology and Anthropology Department at Northeastern University)- Nik Theodore (Interventions editor of the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research and past editor of Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography; Professor and Head of the Department of Urban Planning and Policy, as well as the Director of the Center for Urban Economic Development, at the University of Illinois Chicago) This event is part of the RC21 annual conference is the main international urban sociology conference. It brings together scholars in urban sociology and neighbouring fields to discuss developments in urban social theory, methods and empirical research and stimulate discussion and cooperation by offering a variety of formats (plenary lectures, paper sessions, author meets critics sessions, roundtables and panels, walkshops, etc.). This years’ edition takes place from 14 July until 16 July 2021 and is hosted by the University of Antwerp (Belgium). The 2021 conference centers around ‘Sensing and Shaping the City’, focusing on how citizens experience the fragmentary, unequal and contradictory realities of global urbanity. REGISTER HERE
Visiting scholar Constance Smith from Social Anthropology at The University of Manchester presents Collapse: Grey development and fake buildings in Nairobi, on Tuesday, 8 October 2019, at 15:00. ABSTRACT Nairobi has recently experienced a spate of residential tower block collapses resulting in significant casualties. In an attempt to understand this precarious architecture, I juxtapose two different, yet linked, construction booms currently reshaping the city. The Kenyan government development rubric Vision 2030 is re-envisioning Nairobi as a ‘world class’ city of spectacular infrastructure and gleaming high-rise buildings. At the same time, ad hoc property speculation is constructing high density, poor-quality tower blocks that pose a high risk of structural failure; buildings that Nairobians often describe as ‘fake’. Drawing on literature in African Studies about the power of fakes and the counterfeit, as well as on recent debates in Urban Studies problematising informality, I reflect on Nairobi’s drastic landscape of architectural failure, and how this is entangled with larger processes of urban transformation. ABOUT Constance Smith is a UKRI Future Leader Fellow in Social Anthropology at the University of Manchester, UK, where she also works within the Urban Institute. Her work explores the social, political and material dynamics of urban landscapes in times of transformation. She has done fieldwork in Nairobi, Addis Ababa, Kampala and London. Her new book, Nairobi in the Making: Landscapes of time and urban belonging (James Currey, 2019) explores how the residues of colonial architecture shape self-making and city-making in contemporary Nairobi. WHEN: Tuesday, 8 October 2019 TIME: 15:00 - 16:30 VENUE: Davies Reading Room, Environmental and Geographical Science Building, Upper Campus, UCT
