Knowing the City: Transformative Theoretical Practices of African Urban Scholarship
Convenors: Anna Selmeczi (African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town), Sophie Oldfield (Cornell University)
Track: Transformative Practices
Keywords: Urban Transformation, Knowledge Production, Cross-generational Commitments, Knowing the City
Thursday October 24, 13:45-15:15 & 15:30-17:00, A4, John Moffat Building
SESSION 8
KNOWING THE CITY: TRANSFORMATIVE THEORETICAL PRACTICES OF AFRICAN URBAN SCHOLARSHIP
In Africa and elsewhere in the global south, urban scholars are necessarily embedded in multiple relationships with state actors, non-governmental organisations, local and transnational social movements, and donors. The twin challenge for urbanists in and of the south is to generate locally sensitive evidence of urban dynamics while also deploying theoretical frameworks that have local relevance and practical application (Parnell 2007). How scholars and practitioners (and scholar-practitioners) navigate this challenge and what questions they ask is shaped by shifting ‘problem spaces’ (Scott 2014). As the Knowing the City (Oldfield, Selmeczi and Barnett 2024) project showed us, tracking these problem spaces in the body of South African urban scholarship of the last five decades makes visible how deeply interwoven more conventional registers of scholarly expertise and critique are with practices of engaging beyond academia. Indeed, aside from being located geographically, socially, and politically, urban theorising in the south is embodied, personal, and relational.
To continue and broaden the work of Knowing the City, this panel seeks to facilitate a dialogue about the theories and practices of both social inquiry and urban transformation as deeply lived commitments of multiple generations of scholars in Africa and beyond. We invite papers that reassess the geographies and commitments of African urban studies by paying attention to scholars' distinctive forms of engagement and the problem spaces that have shaped urban scholarship. In doing so, we aim to reflect on the generation of ideas and (knowledge) practices in urban studies on and beyond the continent.
Presentations 13:45-15:15
Democratization of Design: Paradigm of Agency for the ‘Expert Citizen’ and ‘Citizen Expert’ within South Africa's urban fabric
''Knowing the City' embodies a theory of agency for residents' role in the urban fabric. Advocates Participatory Design for diverse urban settings. Highlights 'Expert Citizen' and 'Citizen Expert' roles, crucial for equitable urban planning. Explores post-Apartheid SA as a case study, urging scholars to embrace inclusivity in urban theory and practice.
Claiming citizenship outside party politics: thinking politically with Angolan activists
Building on ten years of companionship with young political activists in Luanda, this presentation explores various modes of collective writing (textual, audiovisual, embodied) to unravel the ambivalences of both their ideological discourses and their practical skills to enact citizenship.
Southern Urban Orientation through UTA-Do: Defiant Scholarship and a Research Infrastructure
Critical gatherings, such as the Urban Theory Africa-Doing (UTA-Do) workshop, create particular decolonial orientations and commitments for the participants. My research follows the UTA-Do orientation and how it is shaping the participants’ research, activism and practitioner work in different African cities.
New transdisciplinary and intercultural approaches for generating ideas, knowledge and practices on urban dynamics – learnings from the MSc Integrated Urbanism and Sustainable Design (IUSD) between Cairo and Stuttgart
The MSc Integrated Urbanism and Sustainable Design (IUSD) that is based in Cairo and in Stuttgart includes reality-based studios – in the case of Cairo these are ‘Integrated Case Study’ (ICS) projects that have generated over the years numerous impacts in communities and has expanded the knowledge base at both universities.
Presentations 15:30-17:00
Afropolitan Architecture: Imagining the African Urban Future by Design
Exhibitors at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale showcased other ways of knowing cities, expressing emergent urban strategies. Drawing upon a discussion series initiated by the authors at the Biennale, this paper considers the premise of an Afropolitan agenda for reframing design as a projective discipline for cultivating alternative futures.
Smart Cities Governance in the SADC Region: A Systematic Review of the Literature
The paper analyses smart city literature in SADC countries, focusing on smart city governance, amid the growing datafication of urban life. It identifies five key themes and advocates for more empirical research in the region on the approaches to and impacts of the digitalisation of urbanism.
Strategic Failures: Cash Transfers and the Constitutional Court in South Africa
This paper considers the legal activism of the Black Sash around cash transfers in 2017. It reflects on one particular “problem space” that frames urban scholarship in the neoliberal period: i.e. the assumption that the state or the public is necessarily a better solution to the private sector.
The Theory and Practice of Urban Reform Coalitions in South Africa
The paper explores the potential for urban reform coalitions driven by social values, developmental objectives and technical know-how to achieve progressive changes in the policies and practices of city governments.
