ABSTRACT Objective: To identify factors associated with food purchasing decisions and expenditure of South African supermarket shoppers across income levels. Design: Intercept surveys were conducted, grocery receipts collated and expenditure coded into categories, with each category calculated as percentage of the total expenditure. In-supermarket food quality audit and shelf space measurements of foods such as […]

African Centre for Cities has just published a new book Supporting City Futures: The Cities Support Programme and the Urban Challenge in South Africa by James Duminy and Susan Parnell.  In 2018 the Cities Support Programme (CSP), an initiative of the South African National Treasury, approached ACC to assist with the production of a book […]

Cape Town’s drought crisis grabbed global headlines in 2018 and its causes and solutions were – and continue to be — hotly debated. But managing water shortages and other climate change impacts have been integrated into the city’s urban policy-making for some time, in response to rapid urbanisation and uncertainty about the exact nature, timing […]

Urbanisation is one of the most powerful trends of the modern era. Since 2007, for the first time in history over half the world’s population lives in cities, a proportion the United Nations estimates will rise to two-thirds by 2050. Much of this urban growth will take place in Africa and Asia, but other regions […]

For the third consecutive year African Centre for Cities (ACC) presents four city-focused panel discussions at the forthcoming Open Book Festival, from 4 to 8 September 2019. This year’s sessions are aligned to key areas of ACC’s research namely transport, housing, urban food systems and socio-spatial integration in Cape Town. While the sessions draw on […]

“…from a political, economic, military, and cultural point of view, […] Africa has to become its own center. It has to become its own force. Not as a way of separating itself from the rest of the world, but as a precondition for it to exercise its weight among other forces in the world.” It […]

According to The Global Syndemic of Obesity, Undernutrition, Climate Change: The Lancet Commission report obesity is still increasing in prevalence in almost all countries and is an important risk factor for poor health and mortality. (more…)

African Centre for Cities has a research fellowship available focussed on Urban Studies – Southern Urbanism. Scope of Postdoctoral Fellowship The postdoctoral fellowship is focussed on Urban Studies –Southern Urbanism. The candidate will have expertise in: qualitative social research, with a firm grounding in social theory and an interest in the global South. Familiarity with […]

A city’s greatest resource, and its reason for being, are its people. Since the industrial revolution, cities began to be seen as “machines for living in” and people were subjugated to technocracy and infrastructure. But as we have seen with recent challenges that come with climate change and conflict, our resilience as people’s tied strongly […]

The African Centre for Cities (ACC) was established in 2007 at the University of Cape Town as an urban research institute. The ACC is based in the School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics in the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, but is interdisciplinary in its scope, drawing expertise on urban issues from across […]

The ACC is undertaking research on urban sustainability as it relates to southern urbanism to build capacity-making on the urban future, as part of the RCUK PEAK Urban Grand Challenges grant (http://www.peak-urban.org). The work package for this appointment focuses on understanding how to address the urban sexual health needs of the ‘Key Populations’ and in […]

Please note that the African Centre for Cities is re-advertising this post. CALL FOR APPLICATIONS The ACC invites applications for a postdoctoral fellowship to support research associated with the PEAK Urban project. The successful candidate will become part of a new global cohort of urban researchers as part of the PEAK Urban project. The ideal […]

ACC’s Jane Battersby is among the new members of the Global Nutrition Report‘s Independent Expert Group (IEG). The IEG members were selected to bring the right mix of expertise and fresh perspectives to the Global Nurtrition Report in 2018 and beyond. The IEG as a whole represents individual members’ expertise in research, programming, data and […]

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS The African Centre for Cities invites applications for a postdoctoral fellowship to support research associated with the PEAK Urban project. The successful candidate will become part of a new global cohort of urban researchers as part of the PEAK Urban project. The ideal candidate will have expertise in urban studies debates, a firm […]

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS The ACC invites applications for a postdoctoral fellowship to support research associated with the PEAK Urban project and complementary work on urban sustainability and governance. The successful candidate will become part of a new global cohort of urban researchers as part of the PEAK Urban project. The ideal candidate will have expertise […]

Last year ended on a high note politically, with the sense that Cyril Ramaphosa may lift the gloom over the capability of the South African state. However, the challenges of corruption and state integrity cannot be underestimated, and a review of the immense effort required to change things after apartheid is a reminder of how […]

The African continent is rapidly urbanizing. If this point is agreed upon by a wide variety of actors—from media, to governments, UN agencies, development banks as well as scholars—there is far less consensus about what this process will mean for Africans. The Academy of African Urban Diversity aims brings together doctoral students to debate and […]

On Monday April 3rd, 2017, “One Table Two Elephants”  will be screened at the Deutsches Haus 42 Washington Mews, New York, NY from 6:00 – 8:00 PM This film essay is about bushmen bboys, a flower kingdom and the ghost of a princess. Entering the city through its plants and wetlands, the many-layered, painful and liberating history of the […]

City Embedded Researcher: FRACTAL Cities and Climate Change Project University of Zambia, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies Position: Fixed term for 3 years, full-time Application closing date: 30 April 2016 Start date: negotiable around 1 June 2016 End date: 30 June 2019 Applications are invited for the position of Lusaka embedded researcher in the […]

Ghetto Trekk! is one of the seven projects ACC is supporting as part of Public Art and the Power of Place project. According to the project coordinator: ‘GHETTO TREKK! is a touring platform that is designed for visual art, music, film-making, fashion, design, curatorship and theatre, while providing a podium for individuals from a wide […]

Theatre in the Backyard is one of the seven projects being supported by the ACC as part of Public Art and the Power of Place. Theatre in the Backyard presents “Is He Mad?” written & directed by Mhlanguli George and performed by Lamla Ntsaluba. According to the project organisers, “Is He Mad?”: ‘A story of a […]

The Harare Academy of Inspiration is one of the seven public-facing art projects being supported by the ACC as part of Public Art and the Power of Place. The curators have the following to say: ‘The Harare Academy of Inspiration is an ambitious public art project, turning a small restaurant in front of Harare Library in […]

We are proud to announce the publication of: Better Growth, Better Cities: Rethinking and Redirecting Urbanisation in Africa, by Anton Cartwright.

We would like to thank all those who submitted proposals. We were inundated by excellent ideas, and after much deliberation, we are excited to announce the selection of projects for Public Art and the Power of Place. In alphabetic order: >> FAST FORWARD>> HERE:  Newcastle Creative Network with Maninzi Kwatshube This project examines the prospects and […]

A meeting of prominent academic urbanists (including from the ACC) was held on 18 August at the University of the Witwatersrand to discuss the relationship between research and urban policy development, and ways ahead. Meeting summary and links to podcasts.

The Cape Town Civil Society Conference, to be held at UCT on June 6, 2015; invites civil society organisations from across the city to reflect and share their experiences in mobilizing and influencing the urban environment.

We will be implementing some changes and major upgrades to the site from 1-21 June. This might result in a few areas not working as they should for the period. We apologise for any inconveniences.

Climate change is reshaping our understanding of development pathways, bringing into stark relief how development choices impact us unequally and often in unintended or unforeseen ways as mediated through the environment or earth system. Writes Anna Taylor in this article for UrbanAfrica.net

The African Centre for Cities will host a new R12m, five-year international comparative multi-city inquiry research programme focusing on youth entrepreneurship in the informal food economy; competition and inclusive growth in the urban food economy; reshaping informal food systems through inclusive growth; rapid urbanisation, food insecurity and inclusive growth.

The ACC is leading a three-year research project about governing food systems to alleviate poverty in secondary cities in Africa.

The University of Basel (Unibas) and the University of Cape Town (UCT) are jointly establishing a Professorship in Urban Studies which will be based in the African Centre for Cities (ACC) at UCT. Corresponding to its long-standing interests in African Studies, and its concern with African cities as a crucial element of the urban future, […]

  An Op-Ed titled “Transport system and densification must foster mutually inclusive plans” by Edgar Pieterse as it appeared in Cape Times, 18 July 2014