Critical approaches and understandings: Engaging overlooked aspects of urban governance and resilience
Convenors: Marie Huchzermeyer (University of the Witwatersrand)
Track: Critical Engagements
Keywords: African Cities, Governance, Resilience
Friday October 25, 13:45–15:15, PG Seminar Room, John Moffat Building
SESSION 32
CRITICAL APPROACHES AND UNDERSTANDINGS: ENGAGING OVERLOOKED ASPECTS OF URBAN GOVERNANCE AND RESILIENCE
The framings of governance and resilience have been mainstreamed and, some may argue, overused in the contemporary urban discourse. However, they also provide an umbrella for less conventional engagements with critical aspects of the contemporary African city. This session brings together presentations that deconstruct settled understandings of the city and its governance by addressing urgent themes such as decolonial praxis in climate change governance, the much over-looked governance for food security, the production of informal land land-use, the plural pursuit of digitalisation and the cultural adaptation of historical infrastructure.
Presentations
Land Governance and Informal Landuse Outcomes in African Secondary Cities: Narratives from the Peri-Urban Areas of Osogbo, Nigeria
The study is engaged with the critical perspective that highlights the role of land governance in the production of urban informality in the peri-urban areas of Osogbo, Nigeria. It answers the questions of why, how, and where policies, culture, and social dimensions of land governance triangulate to produce informal land use outcomes. Findings from the study will aid policy directions toward enhancing land governance in the peri-urban areas for the effective management of urban infomrality.
From city bureaucrats to data activists and GIS engineers: Actors, networks and the institutionalization of digital governance in Cape Town and Geneva
Increasingly, attention is paid to the ways in which digitalization is harnessed for urban governance decision-making. We examine the different rationales, responses, and results of digital artefacts used for city-making by networks of actors who engage in questions of city transformation, placing data politics at the centre of urban governance.
Whatever is sharpened, cuts: Towards a decolonial research agenda in African urban climate governance scholarship and practice
Our study uses a decolonial lens to analyze climate adaptation governance, challenging dominant frameworks influenced by colonial legacies. We advocate for context-based approaches to foster diverse, equitable responses to climate challenges, reshaping urban environmental governance.
