(An)other space is possible : an exploration of the conflicts and contestations in the realisation of a “democratising” Public Space in the City of Tshwane

This thesis explores societal and municipal perceptions and meanings of urban public spaces in the City of Tshwane (CoT). Focus is placed on how these perceptions and meanings contribute to the conflict and contestations over the realisation of democratic urban public spaces. Focussing on three case studies of different urban public space typologies in the City of Tshwane, namely; Jubilee square, Magnolia Dell Park, and Rietondale Park, the study interrogates how society’s perceptions of urban public spaces on the one hand, and municipal official’s ideas and conceptualisations of space on the other hand, contribute to the contestations and conflicts over the realisation of democratic urban public spaces in the City of Tshwane. Predicated on the qualitative research methodology and thematic data analysis, the thesis relies on semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, documentation reviews and on site observations as data collection strategies. The thesis is premised upon the argument that urban planning seeks to produce, shape, and control urban public spaces through its legal and institutional apparatus. At the same time, society seeks to resist such controls through its uses of and practices in space as part of its efforts to realise its socio-economic, religious, cultural, and political needs. In other words, there is a contestation for the production of democratic urban public space by both urban planning as an institution and society to meet their respective needs, and to engage with space in ways that are meaningful to their everyday experiences. Using Henri Lefebvre's theory of space production and his spatial triad, alongside David Harvey’s conceptualisation of space, the thesis found that the parks under study are made and remade by societies contentious processes of physical and psychological appropriation of space on the one hand, and municipal efforts of sanitisation and domination on the other. These processes are embedded in notions of belonging, resistance, citizenship, planning aspiration and societal needs. As such, the thesis proposes a conceptual framework for understanding how democratic urban public spaces are made and remade through the inter- and intra-play between these different notions and the implications for future planning. The thesis offers a shifting of perspectives from democratic urban public space as a means to an end, but rather positions it as a continued process of democratising space through conflict and contest. Therefore, the thesis argues for a “democratising public space” instead of a “democratic public space” as an(other) space possible in a democratic dispensation. This is a shift from the noun to the verb reinforcing the idea that democracy in space should mean continued actions (doing) and evolving meanings and experiences that conflict and contest, not a state of absolute existence which suggests a semantic category as the noun proposes.Thesis (PhD (Town and Regional Planning))--University of Pretoria, 2021.ArchitecturePhD (Town and Regional Planning)Unrestricte

Mainstreaming climate change adaptation into urban development : lessons from two South African cities

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2010.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Cataloged from student submitted PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 84-89).There is a risk that urban climate change adaptation planning - often led by city environmental agencies - will remain isolated from ongoing city decision-making processes, and thus irrelevant, unless adaptation is mainstreamed into municipal line functions' existing activities and planning processes. Yet little empirical research exists showing what the adaptation "mainstreaming" process actually looks like for a city government department. This thesis addresses this gap, and identifies key drivers, limiting factors, and implications of adaptation mainstreaming within municipal service departments. Specifically, I analyze progress toward climate adaptation mainstreaming by the housing and stormwater management departments in Cape Town and Durban, South Africa: two cities that are widely considered adaptation frontrunners in the Global South. The experiences of the departments analyzed lead to several conclusions about the adaptation mainstreaming process for departments faced with pressing short-term service delivery challenges and capacity constraints. Foremost, the process encompasses, and requires, both substantive and conceptual elements. Substantively, departments start with complying with mandates and accommodating requests from other departments that advance adaptation. Gradually, they move to more deeply internalize these and other push factors, initiating actions to "climate proof' core activities and processes. Culminating the process, they eventually see climate change as a reason to more heavily collaborate and engage external actors around managing climate risks. Substantive mainstreaming progress, meanwhile, both depends on and advances a department's conceptual embedding of the adaptation agenda. Several enabling factors advance the process, prominently including access to additional funding and support to supplement scarce and inflexible resources. Progress is also influenced by the innate longevity of a department's planning horizon, its decisionmaking autonomy vis-a-vis higher levels of government, and its degree of regulatory vs. serviceprovision focus, among other pre-existing departmental qualities.(cont.) Tracing the adaptation mainstreaming process further suggests a few key implications for donors and others looking to support cities in their climate adaptation efforts. Firstly, the process of integrating adaptation into municipal line function core operations and decision making processes is undeniably challenging and slow. Thus, in light of scarce resources and other more seemingly pressing agendas, a department is unlikely to begin substantively embedding adaptation unless first seeing the agenda as conceptually intertwined with core functions and immediately actionable. Secondly, although this research did not control for the presence of a city-wide climate adaptation office, the experience of the featured departments suggests that such an office can play a critical role in pushing and supporting departments to mainstream adaptation. Such offices can identify and channel additional sources of funds for adaptation, educate departments about climate change risks, and keep the adaptation agenda politically visible. Thirdly, the way in which adaptation is framed as an agenda within a city has repercussions for departmental buy-in. For example, an environmental problem framing may not be the most advantageous for departments such as housing who historically see environmental agendas as external to, or even in conflict with, their core mandates. Meanwhile, other departments may be reluctant to respond to push factors or support from city-wide climate offices if they perceive adaptation as working against fulfillment of some core responsibilities, even if enhancing others.by Leanne A. Farrell.M.C.P

Making the West End modern: space, architecture and shopping in 1930s London.

This research explores the shopping cultures of the 1930s West End, arguing for the recognition of this as a significant moment within consumption history, hitherto overlooked in favour of the Victorian and Edwardian periods. The approach is interdisciplinary, combining in a new way studies of shopping routes and networks, retail architecture, spectacle, consumer types and consumption practices. The study first establishes the importance of shopping geographies in understanding the character of the 1930s West End. It positions this shopping hub within local, national and international networks. It also examines the gender and class-differentiated shopping routes within the West End, looking at how the rise of new consumer cultures during the period reconfigured this geography. In the second section, a case study of two new Modern shops, Simpson Piccadilly and Peter Jones, provides the focus for a discussion of retail buildings. Architecture is presented as an important way in which the West End was transformed and modernity articulated. Modernism was a significant arrival in the West End's retail sector: it provided a new architectural approach with a close, if often problematic, relationship with shopping. The study thus reassesses common assumptions about the fundamental irreconcilability of modernism with consumption, femininity and spectacle. The third section makes a more detailed examination of the staging of shopping cultures within the West End street, looking at window display, the application of light and decoration to facades, and participation in pageantry. The study thus revisits retail spectacle, an important strand within histories of shopping and of the urban, looking at how established strategies were adapted and developed to stage modernity, emerging consumer cultures and the West End itself during the 1930s

Maps as objects : exploring an object-oriented approach to cartography through maps in the smart city

This thesis starts from the premise of the changing nature of maps in the context of digital technologies and big data on the one hand, and a burst in theorising them, on the other. One context in which these developments in mapping technologies is particularly prominent is that of the smart city. This provides an interesting context in which to study developments in map use and production and the way in which new theories may be helpful in understanding this changing nature of maps. The thesis therefore explores two case studies of mapping projects in the smart city – MotionMap in Milton Keynes and Whereabouts London – to ask: can object-oriented ontology be used to inform cartographic theory and research? It considers the philosophical debates on object-oriented ontology (OOO) to examine how a different theoretical framework can yield new perspectives on the role of maps in the representation and production of space. It reviews key cartographical traditions such as the communication approach, critical and post-representational cartography, and discusses how OOO challenges their assumptions. Based on this, it develops a number of different lines of enquiry for an object-oriented approach to cartography. In particular, these lines of enquire revolve around relationship between emergence and change: the interior withdrawal of objects on the one hand and their outward ability to relate and affect on the other. Bringing together these concerns about OOO, cartography and the smart city, the aims to contribute to a number of research areas. Firstly, it explores the relevance of object-oriented thinking to the cartographic theory and research. Secondly, it is an examination of the methodological and theoretical relevance of the philosophical principles of OOO to empirical research. Finally, it contributes to the literature on case studies of the smart city

Cities within a city : planning policies and intra-urban inequalities in Greater Sydney

Numerous research papers and reports have acknowledged Sydney’s inequalities in terms of place-based difficulties, governance, migrant settlement, displacement, gentrification, housing development, and affordability. However, that research is not specific to the urban inequalities related to urban policy applications. Considering the gap, this research investigates the urban planning practices, their impacts and outcomes in Sydney in light of case studies, secondary evidence, empirical data and critical urban philosophies. The key questions in this research are: how is Sydney transforming into an increasingly unequal city? how do influential socio-economic actors contribute to urban inequalities? what is the situation of the rights to the city in the disadvantaged geographies of Sydney? And how are the life and livelihoods of Sydney’s underprivileged residents disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic? This research employs critical theory as a crucial lens to analyse the socio-economic disparities in urban spaces. The critical analysis outlines that the NSW urban planning system, practices and outcomes influence the cities within a city divide in Sydney, supporting secondary content and empirical data. The affluent areas are prioritised in neoliberal urban growth with less housing and population targets and expanded opportunities. In contrast, the disadvantaged regions have extreme urbanisation instead of much needed urban opportunities and infrastructure support. The NSW urban planning practices are strongly influenced by socio-economic power; consequently, high socio-economics northern and eastern areas of Sydney influence the urban growth and development. They are able to prevent densification in their areas. On the other hand, the less affluent residents of low socio-economic Western Sydney areas lack the power to resist large volumes of additional dwellings leading to fast densification. The critical analysis of this research outlines Sydney’s urban policy practices, planning powers, and urban rights divide as an ‘east–west divide’. This research points out that empowered local politics, expanded communication, enhanced consultation, and improved community engagement mechanisms are needed to effectively engage Western Sydney residents in the planning process. This research develops the ‘Equal, Resilient and Sustainable Western Sydney Model’ to address the existing urban divide and build equal, sustainable and resilient cities and communities. This thesis also proposes numerous strategies to ensure Western Sydney residents’ active and robust community engagement. In addition, better and accessible education, improved human resources, innovation, technological transformation, and efficient infrastructure are vital to enhancing socio-economic development in disadvantaged Western Sydney

Drawing QSers' mind : a cognitively-informed critical metaphor analysis tracing the cultural model of the Quantified Self

With the spread of digital surveillance technologies from the domains of military and medical to those of personal and everyday, we have seen invention of novel metaphors to conceptualise our daily practices as well as our selves in relation to such emerging technologies as Big Data, which aggregate, crunch and sort our personal information collected from the sensors and cameras embedded ubiquitously now in our living environment, known as an ‘infosphere.’ They sort our selves in a new way, thus altering our self-concept and informing a new, data-driven self culture. The epitome of this trend is the Quantified Self (QS) movement. The participants, known as QSers and who are prosumers, seek ‘self knowledge through numbers’ generated by commercial self-monitoring devices, such as Fitbit and Mi Band. They put their bodily activities under self-surveillance for becoming the experts of self-management and self-optimisation. The global popularisation of QS culture has three implications for our human condition. First, it creates a sham utopia. The platform economy brings into being a precariat, who struggle daily for security and success. In response, the QS gadget companies advertise to a white, middle-class clientele that they can offer them both. Second, it promotes neoliberal reflexive practices and discourse of selfhood. QS culture is historically rooted in the American success culture, which prizes individual success made through self-reliance and continuous self-reinvention. This culture foregrounds personal agency in influencing individuals’ living conditions and life chances, while discounting social structural factors. Third, it makes privacy, hence self-reinvention, problematic. When it comes to the issue of ownership of QSers’ self-data, it is ambiguous to whom they belong and whether the QSers can still enjoy ‘the right to forget’ once the data are uploaded to the cloud. Sociologists have studied the QS culture and its relations to neoliberalism, but they have not tackled the QSers’ subjective experience, particularly their own discourse and mind, in a systematic manner. Meanwhile, although cognitive linguists have had the tools to probe QSers’ discourse, mind and culture, or the cognitive schemas and structures that influence QSers’ beliefs and behaviours, they have not done so, either. Therefore, my thesis contributes to the QS research by cross-fertilising, or transgressing the boundaries of, the disciplines, adding to it another dimension of cognitively-informed critical metaphor analysis of QSers’ mind. I have applied critical discourse analysis for both literature review and empirical analysis. For the empirical chapters, I have systematically mapped out the relations between a QSer’s use of conceptual metaphors in a blog post and the underlying cognitive schemas, which constitute a cultural model of Quantified Self for a sample consisting of a small corpus (52,177 words in total). I used the methods of MIP and SMA to identify the linguistic, conceptual and systematic metaphors in a prototypical blog post, sampled from my proprietary corpus of 40 unique QSers’ blog texts. Based on the identifications, I further traced three metaphor trajectories, or the blogger’s thought patterns, that involved the self, QS tools and data. I found that 1) the blogger thought his HEALTH CONDITIONS WERE OBJECTS that could be managed and controlled with hard work and help from self-monitoring devices, thus giving him a sense of self-made success and being in control. 2) He thought the QS TOOLS WERE PEOPLE, who were productive, capable, intelligent and friendly. This reflects the infosphere’s structural influence on people’s cognition, which decentres the humans and places them on par with other informational agents. 3) He conceived that his DATA WERE VALUABLE RESOURCES, whose ownership was unclear. Meanwhile, alternative metaphors that were relegated to the background by the QS culture were revived and discussed along these trajectories. Altogether, they have demonstrated the framing effects of QS metaphors, i.e. the metaphors can both enable and constrain a QSer’s conceptualisation of self in connection with data and self-control

SPATIAL FUTURES: ASPIRATIONS AND ACTIONS REGARDING FORM AND SPATIAL CHANGE IN JOHANNESBURG

A report for Group Strategy, Policy Coordination and Relations, City of JohannesburgAddressing the racially divided, sprawling and socially inequitable spatial form of South African cities has been key to strategic spatial planning and urban spatial frameworks in South African cities, including in Johannesburg. These ideas were included in the Johannesburg 2006 Growth and Development Strategy (GDS), and in the 2011 GDS, which focused more strongly on resilience, but making strong links to spatial form. They have also been a consistent element of various rounds of Johannesburg Spatial Development Frameworks (SDFs). However, despite several of these concerns being embodied in national urban and city policies, objectives to restructure cities spatially have proven to be very difficult to achieve, and there is a growing frustration and questioning of whether some of these objectives are still appropriate. At the same time, the urban restructuring agenda, and the areas that spatial policy addresses have been constrained in practice, and there are several gaps and silences in the issues that are addressed. This paper provides a discussion of the choices, tensions, and trade-offs facing spatial policy in Johannesburg. It considers whether the policy objectives expressed in existing spatial policies (including the Johannesburg GDS and SDF) are still relevant, and address key spatial dynamics and issues. It does this by exploring several key areas of debate around the spatial form of cities and spatial policy internationally, examining how they manifest in Johannesburg, and highlighting these choices, tensions and trade-offs. It recognises, as a starting point, that while urban spatial policies have some power to shape spatial change, spatial trends and dynamics occur in a complex environment, where there are many drivers and shapers of spatial change. As emphasised in the position paper on ‘Strategic Planning in a Turbulent and Uncertain Context’, spatial policies that hope to influence spatial change need to understand the (shifting) key trends and drivers that affect space, including demographic, economic and social patterns that influence the demand for space. There are many examples of spatial plans which missed key trends, vastly over- or under- estimated population growth, and consequently planned for spatial forms which proved to be inappropriate. The spatial form of cities is also shaped by markets of various forms. Planning may attempt to engage with and regulate or direct these markets in the interests of its social and spatial goals and objectives, but it does not have completely free reign. Further, there are frequently disjunctures between strategic spatial planning and implementation, reflecting limits in terms of capacity, political will, institutional cooperation/integration and other factors. Finally, city spatial policies do not occur in isolation, nor do spatial policies necessarily have the power desired by planners. Spatial change and spatial form is critically affected by infrastructural investments, particularly in relation to transport (roads, transit systems), which are frequently follow a different planning process and logic (UN-Habitat, 2009). Likewise, differences between spheres of government and sectoral departments with power to invest in the built environment are also key to the disjunctures between spatial plans and outcomes. The emphasis on housing delivery on scale, along with cheaper land on the periphery, has undermined spatial policies towards urban compaction both internationally (Buckley et al., 2016) and in South Africa (Charlton, 2014). The recent international emphasis on ‘mega- projects’ is often driven by the private sector (such as major gated estates), but also by parts of the public sector (for example eThekwini’s airport). It is also influencing spatial change, bypassing spatial plans or forcing their adaptation (Shatkin, 2008; Robbins et al, 2015; Todes, 2014). This paper explores several key points of focus and debate affecting the spatial futures of cities, particularly in relation to Johannesburg. It draws out the key choices, tensions and trade-offs in these areas, and their implications for future spatial planning in Johannesburg. These include: • The debate over the creation of a more compact urban form, versus expanding and sprawling cities, including the discussion of new cities and satellite cities. Sustainability and resilience as key discourses and their implications for urban spatial form, and the role of transport and mobility will be considered in this context. Understandings of densification, how it is encouraged and managed will also be discussed. • Trends towards social exclusion versus arguments for spatial justice and the right to the city. This discussion considers trends towards privatised and splintered urbanism, gated communities, gentrification, and safety and security as a driver. It also discusses other dimensions of exclusion/inclusion—race, gender and the question of migrant spaces, and policies on socio-spatial integration. • Processes of spatial change in poor neighbourhoods, and initiatives to improve conditions there, including upgrading informal settlements, the growth of informal trade, addressing backyard housing. • Relationships between space and economic development, including the dynamics of growth and decline across the city, debates over promoting development on the periphery versus existing areas of agglomeration, and initiatives to promote economic development in townships. • City-region and multi-scalar governance, including the extent to which metropolitan governance addresses competing tensions and interests across the city, cross-border issues, and disjunctures and tensions between spheres of government.A report for Group Strategy, Policy Coordination and Relations, City of JohannesburgAA201