Cityness and African Urban Development

This paper explores one possible argument for how to respond to the epistemic troubles in the production of knowledge about urban Africa. The problem I have in mind is the preponderance of policy-oriented research on the development challenges and absenceAfrican urbanism, everyday practices, social infrastructures, urban violence

Incomplete ruptures: The political economy of realising socio-economic rights in South Africa

No Abstract

Re-building amongst ruins: The pursuit of urban integration in South Africa (1994-2001).

The 'apartheid city' was synonymous with extreme racial segregation and inequality. After the first democratic elections in April 1994, a range of new urban development policies were developed to deconstruct and re-build the apartheid city. These efforts unfolded under a policy discourse of urban integration. Spatial planning featured large in the urban development policy matrix of the South African state at a time when spatial planning was declining in influence in the international context. The thesis focuses on the relevance of spatial planning for addressing three intractable and inter-related features of the apartheid city: racial segregation, land-use fragmentation and inequality. The research sought to explain why by 2001, the urban development agenda was not dismantling the apartheid city, but rather reinforcing its spatial patterns. The theoretical contribution of the research is to show how the policy ideal of urban integration corresponds very closely to planning ideas contained in theories associated with the Compact City and New Urbanism, while procedural aspects are akin to the arguments of Communicative Planning theory. The thesis identifies a hybridised South African approach that found support across a wide spectrum of urban development policies - housing, development planning, transport, local government, environmental management. However, political and institutional frictions between national departments and spheres of government made it virtually impossible to harness the potential synergy that could arise from such policy confluence. The research explored two policy frameworks in close detail: 1) the Urban Development Framework driven by the national Department of Housing; and 2) the Municipal Spatial Development Framework (Muni- SDF) of the City of Cape Town Municipality. The latter policy was explored in terms of its broader institutional setting and through a micro-level study focussed on a land-use dispute. The case study of post-apartheid urban policy was researched through a combination of qualitative methods such as in-depth interviews, archival documentary reviews and an analysis of secondary literature. The thesis argues that the normative planning theories employed need to be articulated in a way that accounts for the specificity of the South African postcolonial experience. It is concluded that the policy tenets of urban integration need to be recast in a way that takes explicit account of specific contextual and institutional dynamics and power that shape the contested political dialogue about how best to advance urban integration so that policies can better reduce the urban fragmentation, segregation and inequality that continue to mark and haunt South African cities

Culturas da juventude e a mediação da exclusão/inclusão racial e urbana no Brasil e na África do Sul

Neste artigo assume-se que a condição urbana contemporânea está fortemente marcada por uma crescente pluralidade. Associada a esta mudança na natureza do contexto urbano, pode-se também observar a proliferação de lugares (sites) de engajamento político e de ação, sendo alguns deles formalmente ligados a fóruns institucionais do Estado, mas muitos outros podem ser caracterizados pela sua insistência em permanecer fora do Estado, uma forma de afirmar autonomia e clamar por termos próprios de reconhecimento e formas de agir. O artigo chama a atenção para o significado de uma categoria de atores urbanos – hip-hoppers – que ocupa uma posição “marginal” na relação com o Estado, mas que é muito relevante para a existência marginalizada da maior parte da juventude negra nas cidades do sul global, particularmente no Rio de Janeiro e na Cidade do Cabo. O artigo demonstra que as culturas hip hop oferecem uma poderosa estrutura de interpretação e resposta para a juventude pobre que sofre sistematicamente o impacto de forças urbanas extremamente violentas e exploradoras. A base do poder do hip hop (e congêneres) é sua complexa sensibilidade estética, que funde valores afetivos – como o desejo, a paixão e o prazer, mas também a ira e a crítica –, que por sua vez se traduzem em identidades políticas e às vezes em ação (ou seja, posicionamento) para seus participantes. Em última instância, o artigo procura associar o potencial da cultura política do hip hop a temas acadêmicos mais amplos, tais como participação, espaço público, cidadania e segurança.

Infrastructure financing in Africa: Overview, research gaps, and urban research agenda

Africa’s development requires substantial investment in infrastructure systems, such as water, energy and telecommunications. These systems are essential in ensuring that contemporary processes, such as industrialisation and urbanisation, can be leveraged to create real and sustained value for cities, countries, regions and global networks. One of the key questions underpinning this infrastructure challenge is how to finance these systems. Often focussing on the need for bankable projects and creditworthy institutions, debates about how to finance African infrastructure reflect an important and well-rehearsed argument that the key to addressing the infrastructure finance gap, thereby unlocking Africa’s infrastructure challenge, is overcoming the mismatch between investor expectations and the actual risk/return profile of infrastructure programmes and projects. In this mismatch, many useful projects are regarded as simply unbankable, either as short-term returns are too low, or the risks are too high or not easily quantified and costed. With the sustainable development goals and other global agendas calling for more equality, climate responsiveness and poverty alleviation, the development sector has been compelled to move beyond the frame of bankability to ensure that investments are sustainable and just. This has required deeper engagement with how financial logics, such as rating systems and assessment criteria, shape the sustainability of infrastructural outcomes. It has also required recognising current gaps in knowledge, such as the lack of data on Africa and the weaknesses in our ability to analyse this data in the context of rapid urbanisation, digitisation, demographic transition and other important trends that have unique implications for the continent. This paper comprises four parts with the intention of demonstrating these gaps and providing a scaffolding for future knowledge production. In section 2, an overview is given of the actors and instruments involved in infrastructure finance in Africa, namely how much different actors are investing, what kinds of financial mechanisms are being used, and into what types of infrastructure sectors. In section 3, the research issues that surface when attempting to analyse that data are outlined, with an indication of where improvements could be made to strengthen documentation and accountability. Building on the insights from section 2 and 3, in section 4, a propositional and forward-thinking research agenda for infrastructure finance research in Africa is presented. The paper is concluded by a presentation of two key areas for collective action

Hungry cities partnership : informality, inclusive growth, and food security in cities of the global south - final project report - period May 2015 - August 2020

Seeing through a food systems lens enables insights into the state of urban development, under-development, marginalization, inclusivity and exclusion in the Hungry Cities Partnership cities. These different and at times intersecting everyday urban conditions have been amplified during the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. The project reports at the city scale. It considers detailed demographic, food security, informal economy and consumption behaviour for over 10,000 households, 8000 (7977) “informal” enterprises and 3700 informal youth enterprises, covering a combined urban population of 55 million people. This report details the outcomes and outputs of the five-year project, and how these relate to project deliverables

Инфекционная составляющая и иммунопатология при хронических воспалительных заболеваниях слизистой оболочки гастродуоденальной области

Выявлено коинфицирование слизистой оболочки желудочно−кишечного тракта Helicobacter pylori и вирусами группы герпеса у больных хроническим гастритом, язвенной болезнью желудка и двенадцатиперстной кишки. Проведена оценка общих и специфических иммунных реакций организма на указанные инфекционные агенты. Обнаруженные изменения в клеточном и гуморальном звене иммунитета могут свидетельствовать об обусловленном ими системном иммунопатологическом процессе.Co−infection of the gastrointestinal mucosa with Helicobacter pylori and herpes viruses in patients with chronic gastritis, gastric and duodenal ulcer was revealed. General and specific immune reactions of the organism to the above agents were evaluated. The revealed changes in the cellular and humoral immunity can suggest systemic immunopathological process