Mapping the city for youth migrants
By Gemma Todd
Johannesburg
Adversity and urban planning: Designing safer, more resilient cities
The African city should be seen as a stimulating and exciting maelstrom of cultural conflict and transformation. We need to celebrate and dissect the fragments of urban life and empathise with the multiplicity and contradictions experienced in our cities, whilst at the same time understand the daily service needs of the urban inhabitants. Under current conditions of extreme and rapid growth experienced in the majority of South African cities, change manifests itself most evidently through space. The urban poor and the 'space' in which they occupy, define and conduct their activities and their relationships form fundamental, dynamic elements of the building of a city in the context of contemporary urban Africa. Public space (the street and the node) forms one of the most important venues for such transformation. Efforts by the urban poor to appropriate community space (although much contested) are an integral part to a process of self-empowerment and socio-economic networking. In the formation of contemporary urban developments in South Africa (particularly in low-income areas and informal settlements), it seems that less attention is given to the space in-between buildings and how these can function as 'service venues'; the very glue that unites the elements of the positive spatial structure; the shared space. One may question why this is so? Read more.
Retooling 'Cities for Life': New approaches to urban infrastructure and service provision
After the transition to democracy from the apartheid era in 1994, an ambitious post-apartheid housing initiative was implemented in South Africa to provide formal housing for those denied it under apartheid. However, the simplest and cheapest policy has been to locate this housing on the urban peripheries (typically over 20km away in the case of Johannesburg's or Pretoria's economic centres) — thus creating an alarming parody of apartheid-spatial planning in locating former black townships in marginal locations far from economic opportunities, amenities, and public transport. This has not only compelled people residing in these areas to use much of their income on transportation but, moreover, the dispersion perpetuates a marginal urban form which increases the burden placed on the city's financial models and its already depleted and over-extended infrastructure networks. Read more.
Retooling 'Cities for Life': New approaches to urban infrastructure and service provision
South Africa has entered into its 20th year of democracy and as the world looks on at a society that has been free of the shackles of Apartheid for two decades, the form of its urban fabric is changing as its cities try to shake off their segregated pasts. Over the last two decades, cities in South Africa have seen the tremendous influx of people in search of economic opportunities and better access to services. This in-migration to urban areas has seen the proliferation of informal settlements from nearly non-existent in the late '80s to over 2000 (and counting) in present day South Africa. Local municipalities and city planning departments have not planned for these settlements. If anything, the only strategy being applied today is a reactionary one, further handicapped by the very formal and rigid development methods imposed by city officials trained primarily in planning for and implementing very traditional city planning processes. Where does that leave the informal settlement dweller? Read more.
Youth focus: Can grassroots movements bring in girls' voices?
Data has emerged showcasing the latest trends of our demographic shift - the global population now articulates a 'youth bulge'. The UN-Population Demographic Profile (2010) show children, and 'youths', comprise 1.6bn, and 1.0bn, of the population in less-developed regions. The population is younger; and Sub-Saharan Africa is no exception. Attention is now turning to youths: what young people do, what opportunities they initiate for their families and nations, and what it means to be 'young' in the developing world. However, an important caveat requires recognition: the focus has been particularly male-focused. Our understanding of girls, within both public and private spaces, remains limited. Such is the debate in this blog post - if we are now looking at 'kids' in the city and development, what are the experiences of girls? What can we learn about the city through an engendered perspective? Fundamentally, who is responsible to grant equal rights? Two models of intervention are discussed be, each using alternative methods to provide rights for girls. However, each acts to reinforce the need to improve our understandings on 'being' a girl. Read more.
Exposing gated cities
Upon exploring how just and inclusive cities can emerge a key component of analysis is social life — how people act in cities, the complex character of sociability, and the factors designing urban life. Multiple concepts have been raised to define what a city is — and has become, and further, what kind of life materialises within urban spaces. Over time cities have been conceptualised as 'misanthropic', expressing disorganisation, violence, and a dense concentration of people whom adopt different mentalities and motives. Such urban personas are expressed through space. Read more.
Lanes and livelihoods: New cycling and pedestrian (NMT) infrastructure in Johannesburg
Travel in South Africa, and Southern Africa in general, is highly skewed by economic means. It is dominated by walking (often great distances on poor quality footpaths) and by public transport, primarily among the poor. In Johannesburg, the situation is exacerbated by the marginalisation created by historic spatial planning and the sprawling, low-density nature of the city. According to the City of Johannesburg's Department of Transport, urbanisation and urban poverty require not only urban transport solutions but also low-cost modes of travel such as cycling. This strategy, known as "Non-Motorised Transport" or NMT, over recent years has gradually become a priority area at National, Provincial and Local Government levels, resulting in the City of Johannesburg's Framework for NMT in 2009. Read more or join the discussion.
Making more with less: An incremental approach to upgrading informal settlements and increasing tenure security
In South Africa, the government's response to the characteristically peri-urban poverty of informal settlement (between 1.7 million and 2.5 million households) has occurred within the paradigm of individual title (subsidised housing), the conventional route for informal settlement upgrading in the country. Despite well-intentioned policies, however, this ownership model is far removed from lived realities; where many households are condemned to either waiting patiently for state-subsidised housing or to land occupation, while others cannot access the state subsidy, such as foreign nationals and the poor-but-not-poor-enough-to-qualify. In the longer term, the model could even be said to lock poor people into marginal locations. Read more or join the discussion.
Who will plan Africa's cities?
Africa's cities are growing — and changing — rapidly. Without appropriate planning, they will become increasingly chaotic, inefficient and unsustainable. In many countries, planning legislation dates back to the colonial era. It is ill-equipped to deal with contemporary urban problems. A shortage of urban planning and management professionals trained to respond to urban complexity with progressive pro-poor approaches exacerbates urban dysfunction. Read more.
A community food garden in Orange Farm, Johannesburg: Toward sustainable, socio-economic 'r-urban' systems
With the projected world population increase of over two billion people by 2050 to be felt mainly in urban areas in developing countries, the future looks urban. This will increase pressure on the larger metropolitan centres to supply not only services such as housing, but also food security. For this reason, urban food gardening has begun to receive increasing attention from policy makers and government officials around the world. Read more or join the discussion.
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