LSE public lecture series explores the challenges in improving urban health in Africa

As part of a new public lecture series exploring healthy cities in collaboration with LSE Cities and LSE Health, Professor Vanessa Watson of University of Cape Town discusses the future of urban health in Africa, asking whether and how we might move towards healthy African cities, including by re-thinking planning and design.

Digital Visualisation as a New Driver of Urban Change in Africa

Cities in Sub-Saharan Africa are growing faster than in any other part of the world, driven by expanding informal settlement (usually on the urban periphery) and the real-estate sector aiming for up-market property development. The continent currently has the highest real-estate value growth potential in the world. Much up-market property development is currently taking the form of new ‘cities’—sometimes a redevelopment of an entire city (e.g., Kigali), sometimes a new city on an urban edge (e.g., Eko-Atlantic, Lagos) and sometimes a new satellite city (e.g., Tatu City, Nairobi). These projects are driven by international property development companies often in collaboration with governments and sometimes with local planning and property partners. All manifest as plans in a new way: as graphics on the websites of international consultants. Most involve no public participation and attempt to by-pass planning laws and processes. Producing these new plans (as computer generated images) are a new set of professionals: architects, planners, visualisers, advertising executives and project managers, working together in offices in global capitals of the world. Their aim is commercial. Planning in these projects is no longer shaped by the materiality of the city and attempts to achieve socio-spatial justice and sustainability. Rather planning is shaped by the circulation of graphics through a network of software programmes and marketing professionals. This article will situate Africa’s new cities in theorisation of urban development and the role of urban planning through digital visualization

The changing nature of the job market for planning in South Africa: Implications for planning educators

This article reports on the findings of a job market study conducted by South African planning schools in Gauteng, Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal in 2001. The study explores several interrelated themes: the structure of the job market, and current trends within the public and private sectors; the growth of new fields of work linked to planning; the growth and decline of fields within planning, and market perceptions of skills and competencies that are needed. Findings are to some extent regional, and reflect economic and institutional dynamics in the three areas. Key findings include the reshaping of the private sector, and the public-private division of work; the diversification of planning work, including a shift towards developmental planning, both within planning departments, and outside of them. Generalist planners are still in demand but the nature of what constitutes generalist planners is much wider than before. The diffuse nature of planning holds both opportunities and challenges for planners and for planning educators

Shifting Approaches to Planning Theory: Global North and South

Planning theory has shifted over time in response to changes in broader social and philosophical theory as well as changes in the material world. Postmodernism and poststructuralism dislodged modernist, rational and technical approaches to planning. Consensualist decision-making theories of the 1980s took forms of communicative and collaborative planning, drawing on Habermasian concepts of power and society. These positions, along with refinements and critiques within the field, have been hegemonic in planning theory ever since. They are, in most cases, presented at a high level of abstraction, make little reference to the political and social contexts in which they are based, and hold an unspoken assumption that they are of universal value, i.e. valid everywhere. Not only does this suggest important research methodology errors but it also renders these theories of little use in those parts of the world which are contextually very different from theory origin—in most cases, the global North. A more recent ‘southern turn’ across a range of social science disciplines, and in planning theory, suggests the possibility of a foundational shift toward theories which acknowledge their situatedness in time and place, and which recognize that extensive global difference in cities and regions renders universalized theorising and narrow conceptual models (especially in planning theory, given its relevance for practice) as invalid. New southern theorising in planning is drawing on a range of ideas on societal conflict, informality, identity and ethnicity. Postcolonialism and coloniality have provided a useful frame for situating places historically and geographically in relation to the rest of the world. However, the newness of these explorations still warrants the labelling of this shift as a ‘southern theorizing project’ in planning rather than a suggestion that southern planning theory has emerged

Journey Interrupted: A Phenomenological Exploration of Miscarriage

Background: Miscarriage is a significant life event that impacts occupational performance, identity, and competence and that influences perceptions of motherhood. Because of the lack of social rituals often attributed to the death of a loved one, miscarriages may result in disenfranchised grief, which impedes coping. Methods: This phenomenological study explored the impact of miscarriage on relationships, perceptions of motherhood, and the meaning of occupation in the context of grief. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews (N = 4) and completion of a brief demographic questionnaire. The interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed verbatim, and reviewed to ensure accuracy. Using inductive thematic analysis, the first author identified initial codes, collated the codes into preliminary themes, and then reviewed, further analyzed, and refined the themes. Results: Three overarching themes were identified: (a) the journey: ambiguity, vulnerability, and the trauma of a miscarriage; (b) seeking acknowledgement and validation of loss: impact on relationships; and (c) occupational engagement: evolving roles and perspectives. Conclusion: The findings of this study illustrated the complexity of the lived experience of miscarriage and highlighted the significant impact of miscarriage on self-identify, relationships, and the complex role of occupation in the context of bereavement

An Annotated Bibliography on Structural Racism Present in the U.S. Food System, Seventh Edition

The purpose of this annotated bibliography is to provide current research and outreach on structural racism in the U.S. food system for the food system practitioner, researcher, educator, and advocate. Our intention is to update this resource on a recurring basis. We suggest it be used as a companion resource for training or education sessions on structural racism in the food system.This annotated bibliography on selected resources and publications is focused on structural racism in the U.S. food system. Structural racism in the United States has been defined as the "normalization and legitimization of an array of dynamics—historical, cultural, institutional, and interpersonal—that routinely advantage Whites while producing cumulative and chronic outcomes for people of color."

Antígenos de tegumento de esquistossômulos são candidatos em potencial para o diagnóstico de fase aguda da esquistossomose mansoni

If Schistosoma mansoni infection could be detected in its early stages, especially before the egg deposition in the host tissues, the development of severe pathologic lesions could be efficiently prevented. We therefore developed an indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay based on the detection of specific IgG against schistosomula antigens (ELISA-SmTeg). The assay was applied in sera samples from non-infected and infected mice collected seven and 15 days post-infection. The results were compared to the number of adult worms obtained by perfusion of the murine hepatic system 50 days post-infection. The sensitivity and specificity of the ELISA-SmTeg were 100% (p = 0.0032 and 0.0048 respectively for seven and 15 days of infection) with a cutoff value of 0.15 (p = 0.0002). Our findings show a novel low-cost serological assay using antigens which are easy to obtain, which was able to detect all the infected mice as early as seven days post-infection.A detecção da infecção pelo helminto Schistosoma mansoni quando realizada nas fases iniciais, especialmente antes da oviposição nos tecidos do hospedeiro, pode impedir de forma eficiente o desenvolvimento de graves lesões patológicas. Baseado nisto, foi desenvolvido um ensaio imunoenzimático indireto para detecção de anticorpos IgG específicos contra antígenos de esquistossômulos (ELISA-SmTeg). Este ensaio foi aplicado em amostras sorológicas de camundongos não infectados, da mesma forma que de camundongos recentemente infectados, após sete e 15 dias de infecção. Os resultados foram comparados com o número de vermes adultos obtidos por perfusão do sistema hepático murino 50 dias pós-infecção. A sensibilidade e a especificidade do novo método, denominado ELISA-SmTeg, foram de 100% (p = 0,0032, 0,0048, respectivamente, durante sete e 15 dias de infecção) com um valor de corte de 0,15 (p = 0,0002). Nossos resultados mostraram que um ensaio de baixo custo, que utiliza antígenos de fácil obtenção, é capaz de discriminar a esquistossomose mansoni em modelo experimental de forma precoce, incluindo sete dias pós-infecção

Journey Interrupted: A Phenomenological Exploration of Miscarriage

Background: Miscarriage is a significant life event that impacts occupational performance, identity, and competence and that influences perceptions of motherhood. Because of the lack of social rituals often attributed to the death of a loved one, miscarriages may result in disenfranchised grief, which impedes coping. Methods: This phenomenological study explored the impact of miscarriage on relationships, perceptions of motherhood, and the meaning of occupation in the context of grief. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews (N = 4) and completion of a brief demographic questionnaire. The interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed verbatim, and reviewed to ensure accuracy. Using inductive thematic analysis, the first author identified initial codes, collated the codes into preliminary themes, and then reviewed, further analyzed, and refined the themes. Results: Three overarching themes were identified: (a) the journey: ambiguity, vulnerability, and the trauma of a miscarriage (b) seeking acknowledgement and validation of loss: impact on relationships; and (c) occupational engagement: evolving roles and perspectives. Conclusion: The findings of this study illustrated the complexity of the lived experience of miscarriage and highlighted the significant impact of miscarriage on self-identify, relationships, and the complex role of occupation in the context of bereavement

An Annotated Bibliography on Structural Racism Present in the U.S. Food System Ninth Addition

This annotated bibliography provides current research and outreach on structural racism in the U.S. food system for the food system practitioner, researcher, educator, and advocate.***To access this resource please click the Download button (to the right) then via Publisher will show and double-click that button

A Simple Method for Quantifying Functional Selectivity and Agonist Bias

Activation of seven-transmembrane (7TM) receptors by agonists does not always lead to uniform activation of all signaling pathways mediated by a given receptor. Relative to other ligands, many agonists are “biased” toward producing subsets of receptor behaviors. A hallmark of such “functional selectivity” is cell type dependence; this poses a particular problem for the profiling of agonists in whole cell test systems removed from the therapeutic one(s). Such response-specific cell-based variability makes it difficult to guide medicinal chemistry efforts aimed at identifying and optimizing therapeutically meaningful agonist bias. For this reason, we present a scale, based on the Black and Leff operational model, that contains the key elements required to describe 7TM agonism, namely, affinity (KA–1) for the receptor and efficacy (τ) in activating a particular signaling pathway. Utilizing a “transduction coefficient” term, log(τ/KA), this scale can statistically evaluate selective agonist effects in a manner that can theoretically inform structure–activity studies and/or drug candidate selection matrices. The bias of four chemokines for CCR5-mediated inositol phosphate production versus internalization is quantified to illustrate the practical application of this method. The independence of this method with respect to receptor density and the calculation of statistical estimates of confidence of differences are specifically discussed