Democratization of Design: Paradigm of Agency for the ‘Expert Citizen’ and ‘Citizen Expert’ within South Africa's Urban Fabric

Abstract

Knowing the City' is more than just a project; it exemplifies a theory and principle of agency that academic scholars aim to apply. And 'knowing' the city entails and signifies first and foremost its residents and their livelihoods, which create and weave the urban fabric and theory. This establishes the theme that the 'city' is a representation that advocates for democratised design solutions through ‘Participatory Design’ techniques to foster a diverse urban environment and development. For this, a paradigm aimed at disintegrating barriers and contesting power distribution in urban planning, placemaking, and policy should become the norm. This establishes the foundation of the responsibilities of the 'Expert Citizen' and 'Citizen Expert', arguing that both are equally vital, that one cannot function without the other (Awan, et. al., 2011) and promotes the opportunity of 'Knowing the City' comprehensively. This paper will begin in post-Apartheid South Africa, where growing urbanisation (inhabited by a diverse range of cultures and socioeconomic demographics) is accompanied by inequality and climate challenges, resulting in the establishment of so-called "problem spaces". Case examples will be investigated and illustrated to demonstrate the importance of the 'Expert Citizen' and 'Citizen Expert' themes in scholarly theory and practice. Second, this article, written by scholars for scholars, will emphasise the sentence "As (urban/architecture) scholars, we often forget that we are only one link” in the urban design loop (De Graaff, 2016). Overall, this represents a first step towards dismantling power dynamics in urban theory and place-making by providing a paradigm of 'Participatory Design' methodologies in the urban south of South Africa.