Changing tune in Woodstock: Creative industries and local urban development in Cape Town, South Africa

Since the beginning of the new millennium, a plethora of works has been published on the making of the ‘creative city’ and the urban impact of the creative economy. So far, however, limited recognition has been given to how the development of cultural industries and the creative economy as a whole influences urban transformation in the rapidly urbanising Global South, especially in Africa. In Cape Town, a steadily growing number of creative industries and ‘culturepreneurs’ (Lange 2005) are carving out new spaces from the city’s highly contested urban setting. Over the past five years, the mixed-use, inner-city fringe area of Woodstock has seen the incessant arrival of creatives from various sectors. Travelling alongside is a property sector geared towards catering specifically for the creative industries’ spatial demands by turning old industrial structures – the remains of Woodstock’s former capacity as national hub for clothing, food processing and other light manufacturing – into creative centres hosting international film studios, leading galleries and designer ‘theatre retail spaces’. After setting the stage through a comprehensive introduction to the rise of the creative economy in South Africa and Cape Town, this article tunes into the current local development of Woodstock, based on extensive field research in the area. It traces ways and forms of conflict but also new social interfaces between the new creative tenants and the old established community, on the one hand pointing to problematic issues like lingering gentrification, sociospatial polarisation and lopsided cultural representation while also trying to flesh out some of the opportunities for finding the right frequency of engagement between creative industries and spaces of vernacular creativity within Cape Town’s post-apartheid urban realm. Keywords: Creative economy, creative city, Global South, urban regeneration, gentrification, vernacular creativit

Worlding – Zwischen theoretischer Annährung, kritischer Intervention und gelebter (Forschungs-)Praxis. Kommentar zu Stephan Lanz’ „Über (Un-)Möglichkeiten, hiesige Stadtforschung zu postkolonialisieren“

Im Hinblick auf die derzeitigen Debatten um Deutschlands und Europas verfehlte Flüchtlings- und Asylpolitik sind zwei Argumente der postkolonialen Stadtforschung aktueller denn je: Zum einen, dass die urbanen Kämpfe im globalen Süden untrennbar verbunden sind mit jenen in Städten des globalen Nordens, zum zweiten, dass die unmenschlichen und gewaltsamen Zustände ‚hüben wie drüben‘ zweifellos als ein direktes Ergebnis (neo-)kolonialer Unterwerfung zu deuten sind. Ausgehend hiervon und in Rekurs auf den Text von Stephan Lanz setzt sich dieser Kommentar mit dem in der postkolonialen Stadtforschung derzeit populären worlding-Ansatz auseinander. Obwohl worlding zu Recht als ein fluides ‚heterodoxes Projekt‘ begriffen wird, liegt der Fokus meines Beitrags darauf, die bereits vorhandenen konzeptionellen Ausdifferenzierungen innerhalb des Ansatzes darzustellen, um so auch dessen analytische Potenziale für eine kritisch-postkoloniale Stadtforschung besser sichtbar zu machen

„Gentrification is a dirty word…”: Kommentar zu Neil Smiths „Für eine Theorie der Gentrifizierung: ‚Zurück in die Stadt‘ als Bewegung des Kapitals, nicht der Menschen“ (2019 [1979])

Bei ihrer Veröffentlichung als revolutionär gepriesen und kontrovers diskutiert, gehört die Rent-Gap-Theorie mittlerweile zum prüfungsrelevanten Kanon jeder guten Einführung-in-die-Stadtgeographie-Vorlesung. Trotzdem ist sie noch lange nicht (Wissenschafts-)Geschichte und bietet – so argumentiert dieser Kommentar – nach wie vor wichtige Anknüpfungspunkte für kritische Stadtforschung und widerständige Stadtpolitik.Praised and controversially discussed upon its publication, nowadays the rent gap theory is a firmly established part of any undergraduate ‘Urban Studies 101’ worth its salt. Yet, it is far from being a mere artefact of scientific history. Rather, as this commentary argues, it still offers important pointers for both critical urban research and radical urban politics.   &nbsp

„Dekolonisieren wir unsere Köpfe“… und unsere Städte! Rezension zu Zwischenraum Kollektiv (Hg.) (2017): Decolonize the City! Zur Kolonialität der Stadt. Gespräche, Aushandlungen, Perspektiven. Münster: Unrast Verlag.

In Decolonize the City! Zur Kolonialität der Stadt – herausgegeben vom Zwischenraum Kollektiv und verlegt vom Unrast Verlag – versuchen Autor_innen aus unterschiedlichen Disziplinen Antworten auf die Frage zu geben, was es im deutschen Kontext bedeutet, ‚Dekolonisierung‘ einzufordern und an welchen Punkten und Orten hierfür intellektuell und praktisch angesetzt werden kann. Der Sammelband zeichnet sich nicht nur durch die große Bandbreite und durchweg hohe Qualität aus, sondern ist vor allem in Bezug auf seine kritisch-reflektierte Publikationspraxis wegweisend. Damit ist Decolonize the City! genauso für eine breite Leser_innenschaft relevant, wie für Wissenschaftler_innen, die sich nicht davor scheuen, ihre eigenen Erkenntnistheorien und Forschungspraxen selbstkritisch zu hinterfragen, und für Aktivist_innen, die sich über antirassistische Kämpfe und Dekolonisierungsinitiativen in andere Städten und Kontexten informieren und ihre Arbeit mithilfe neuer Vokabeln und theoretischer Konzepte stärken wollen

Worlding Cape Town by design:creative cityness, policy mobilities and urban governance in postapartheid Cape Town

Das Leitbild der ‚creative city‘ ist innerhalb der letzten zwei Jahrzehnte zu einer international präsenten Stadtentwicklungsvision geworden. Auch in Kapstadt hat sich seit Mitte der 2000er ein intensiver Diskurs um das Versprechen einer ‚kreativeren' Stadt entwickelt, insbesondere mit Blick auf die nach wie vor nur sehr langsam voranschreitende urbane Integration zwanzig Jahre nach dem formalen Ende der Apartheid. Am Beispiel der Bewerbung um den Titel „World Design Capital 2014“ konzipiert die vorliegende Arbeit Kapstadts aufstrebende 'Kreativstadtlichkeit' (creative cityness) als ein relationales und sich ständig weiterentwickelndes Konstrukt unterschiedlicher politischer, sozialer, räumlicher und ökonomischer Stadtsteuerungslogiken, welche gleichzeitig auf verschiedenen Maßstabsebenen wirken und deren Genealogie die Arbeit empirisch detailliert aufarbeitet und analysiert.Over the past two decades the creative city has become a seemingly ubiquitous international urban development paradigm. Since the mid-2000s, the promise of a more creative city has also permeated Cape Town’s urban transformation agenda, not least in light of the sluggish pace of urban integration twenty years after the formal end of apartheid. Using the case of the city’s bid for the title of “World Design Capital 2014”, the thesis conceptualises Cape Town’s aspirational creative cityness as a relational construct of different political, social, spatial and economic urban governance logics that simultaneously operate at various scales. The thesis empirically reconstructs this genealogy and provides a detailed analysis of the intricate knowledge/power complex emerging around the notion of the ‘first African design(er) city’

Guest Editorial : Urban Youth - Engaging young people and their futures in African cities

The twin reality of Africa as the world’s demographically youngest and most rapidly urbanising continent should, by default, make it a hotspot for youth-centred urban research. And yet, the voices of young Africans remain grossly absent in public discourse, policy debates and mainstream research on issues that directly affect them. This lacuna propelled the conceptualisation of this themed volume, entitled Urban Youth – Engaging young people and their futures in African cities. Showcasing submissions that not only push the envelope in terms of conceptual debates but also reflect in unconventional ways on experimental methods of co-production, this volume contributes to contemporary youth scholarship in three ways: firstly, by bringing together empirically rich, theoretically profound and collaborative scholarship from Africa; secondly, by showcasing cities in general and African cities in particular as productive, epistemological and relevant socio- political settings; and thirdly, by highlighting the importance of collaborative, multimodal research with youth that takes seriously their agency, aspirations and lived experiences, as much as the everyday structural challenges they face. To situate the volume, we first look briefly at common representations of young people, and particularly young Africans, within global media and policy discourses. To outline the broader knowledge project this volume connects to, we then discuss a few basic epistemological overlaps between the emerging fields of Global South Youth Studies and Southern urbanism. Introducing the rich array of creative, rigorous, experimental and propositional practices and research- based contributions that make up this themed volume constitutes the heart of this editorial. In conclusion, we argue that to secure our common urban future, it is pivotal to centre the voices of Africa’s youth. For this, creative multimedia approaches to knowledge co- production and representation will be needed, as will robust, multimodal Afro-centric partnerships

MTO1 mediates tissue specificity of OXPHOS defects via tRNA modification and translation optimization, which can be bypassed by dietary intervention

Mitochondrial diseases often exhibit tissue-specific pathologies, but this phenomenon is poorly understood. Here we present regulation of mitochondrial translation by the Mitochondrial Translation Optimization Factor 1, MTO1, as a novel player in this scenario. We demonstrate that MTO1 mediates tRNA modification and controls mitochondrial translation rate in a highly tissue-specific manner associated with tissue-specific OXPHOS defects. Activation of mitochondrial proteases, aberrant translation products, as well as defects in OXPHOS complex assembly observed in MTO1 deficient mice further imply that MTO1 impacts translation fidelity. In our mouse model, MTO1-related OXPHOS deficiency can be bypassed by feeding a ketogenic diet. This therapeutic intervention is independent of the MTO1-mediated tRNA modification and involves balancing of mitochondrial and cellular secondary stress responses. Our results thereby establish mammalian MTO1 as a novel factor in the tissue-specific regulation of OXPHOS and fine tuning of mitochondrial translation accurac

Native gel electrophoresis of human telomerase distinguishes active complexes with or without dyskerin

Telomeres, the ends of linear chromosomes, safeguard against genome instability. The enzyme responsible for extension of the telomere 3′ terminus is the ribonucleoprotein telomerase. Whereas telomerase activity can be reconstituted in vitro with only the telomerase RNA (hTR) and telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT), additional components are required in vivo for enzyme assembly, stability and telomere extension activity. One such associated protein, dyskerin, promotes hTR stability in vivo and is the only component to co-purify with active, endogenous human telomerase. We used oligonucleotide-based affinity purification of hTR followed by native gel electrophoresis and in-gel telomerase activity detection to query the composition of telomerase at different purification stringencies. At low salt concentrations (0.1 M NaCl), affinity-purified telomerase was ‘supershifted’ with an anti-dyskerin antibody, however the association with dyskerin was lost after purification at 0.6 M NaCl, despite the retention of telomerase activity and a comparable yield of hTR. The interaction of purified hTR and dyskerin in vitro displayed a similar salt-sensitive interaction. These results demonstrate that endogenous human telomerase, once assembled and active, does not require dyskerin for catalytic activity. Native gel electrophoresis may prove useful in the characterization of telomerase complexes under various physiological conditions

Serum from Calorie-Restricted Rats Activates Vascular Cell eNOS through Enhanced Insulin Signaling Mediated by Adiponectin

eNOS activation resulting in mitochondrial biogenesis is believed to play a central role in life span extension promoted by calorie restriction (CR). We investigated the mechanism of this activation by treating vascular cells with serum from CR rats and found increased Akt and eNOS phosphorylation, in addition to enhanced nitrite release. Inhibiting Akt phosphorylation or immunoprecipitating adiponectin (found in high quantities in CR serum) completely prevented the increment in nitrite release and eNOS activation. Overall, we demonstrate that adiponectin in the serum from CR animals increases NO• signaling by activating the insulin pathway. These results suggest this hormone may be a determinant regulator of the beneficial effects of CR

Worlding Cape Town by design: Encounters with creative cityness

Considering the ongoing global proliferation of the urban ‘creativity fix’ and its inclination to further push local governments towards entrepreneurial governance logics and market-led development imperatives, there is a sustained need to understand how the creative city paradigm is being grounded, renegotiated and put into practice in so-called ‘Southern’ cities. To analyse Cape Town’s creative city trajectory and its eventual emergence as the ‘first African World Design Capital’ in 2014, this article brings together three strands of contemporary urban scholarship. First, it utilizes the notion of ‘worlding’ to foreground the complex and multi-scalar processes that shaped Cape Town’s ‘politics of becoming’ a creative city. Second, it draws on the related and growing body of work that engages with globally mobile urban policies, their modes of circulation, adoption and transformation in different socio-political and spatial contexts. Finally, in using this relational framework to analyse Cape Town’s creative-to-design city journey, it contributes to a ‘second wave’ of scholarship on creative city-making that focuses on understanding its heterogeneous manifestations and varied local effects – that is, the diverse and situated expressions of creative cityness in the broader context of a globalizing cultural political economy. Overall the article suggests that future research has much to gain from understanding the creative city paradigm as a powerful ‘worlding device’ that produces place-based responses, which are as much ambitious and aspirational as they are fragile and necessarily incomplete