Urban Planning in the Global South: Conflicting Rationalities in Contested Urban Space

ISBN-13: 9783319694955 / Angielski / Twarda / 2018 / 255 str.

Rick de Satge; Vanessa Watson

Opis

De Satge and Watson posit that a significant change is needed in the makeup of urban planning theory and practice - requiring an understanding of the `conflict of rationalities' between state planning and those struggling to survive in urban informal settlements - for social conditions to improve in the global South.

Spis treści

Chapter 1. Introduction

Introduction to the book

Southern planning theory

Conflicting rationalities

Researching conflicting rationalities in Langa: The method

Understanding the Langa megaproject

Voices from and within the state, voices from and within Langa

Chapter 2. Conflicting Rationalities and Southern Planning Theory

Introducing conflicting rationalities and southern planning theory

The southern turn in global scholarship

The southern turn in planning scholarship

Why a ‘Southern theorising project’?

Conflicting rationalities

Concluding on conflicting rationalities and southern planning theory

Chapter 3. African Cities: Planning Ambitions and Planning Realities

Introducing African cities and planning

Planning in the African context: Colonial footprints

Imported national planning legislation

African cities and planning

African urban interpretations

Looking forward –  new African urban visions

Concluding on African cities and planning

Chapter 4. Struggles for Shelter and Survival in Post-Apartheid South African Cities: The Case of Langa

Introducing struggles for shelter and survival

South Africa and the negotiated transition to democracy

The development of new housing policy

Breaking New Ground

The N2 Gateway

A brief socio-spatial history of Langa and its place in Cape Town

Concluding on struggles for shelter and survival

Chapter 5. Voices From and Within the State

Introducing voices from and within the state

The N2 Gateway – a story in five episodes

Narratives within the state

Trustees and intermediaries

Concluding on voices from and within the state

Chapter 6. Conflicting Rationalities in the N2 Gateway Project: Voices from Langa

Introducing conflicting rationalities in Langa

Langa residents: borners and migrants

Langa narratives

Concluding on conflicting rationalities in Langa

Chapter 7. Implications for Southern Planning Theory and Practice

Introducing implications for southern planning theory and practice

Interrogating the concept of conflicting rationalities

The multiple voices within the State

The fragmented ‘community’

Differentiated contestations over space, place and belonging

Frontiers of deep difference and the hydra of contestations

Concluding on implications for southern planning theory and practice

Chapter 8. Conclusion

Introducing the theoretical propositions

Why do megaprojects so often fail?

Developing planning theory and practice cognisant of divergent rationalities

Writing back to theory

Concluding on planning theory

O autorze

Richard de Satgé is director of research at Phuhlisani, a non-profit company. He has 40 years’ experience working in NGOs across southern Africa as an educator and researcher with a focus on land, livelihoods, poverty and informality. He holds a PhD from the University of Cape Town.

Vanessa Watson is professor of city planning at the University of Cape Town (South Africa) and is a Fellow of this University. She holds degrees, including a PhD, from South African universities and the Architectural Association of London and is on the executive of the African Centre for Cities.

Blurb

‘Refusing to be drawn in by the universalising claims of planning theory, de Satgé and Watson are as attentive to the micro-politics of everyday life as to the global dynamics shaping the broader territory, offering new insights into the concept of ‘conflicting rationalities’. This book offers a springboard in the vital development of southern planning theory and practice.’

– Colin Marx, University College London, UK

 

‘This path breaking book will profoundly shape social science and planning debates about how urban planning, development programmes and governmentality become enmeshed in everyday practices of survival in poor neighbourhoods in the global South.’

– Steven Robins, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa

 

This book addresses the on-going crisis of informality in rapidly growing cities of the global South. de Satgé and Watson advance a Southern perspective on planning theory identifying how key precepts informing urban planning theory and practice must change fundamentally if social conditions are to improve in these settings. They argue that such changes will require an understanding of the ‘conflict of rationalities’ at the heart of the encounters between state planning norms and those struggling to survive in informal settlements. The complex nature of these contestations is explored through an in-depth case study of Langa, a township in Cape Town, South Africa. This reveals the many layers that frame the conflicts between the ambitions of state planners, shack-dwellers and township residents, and examines how these have shaped the changing dynamics of power and permeated all state–society engagements in the planning process.

 

Richard de Satgé is Director of Research at Phuhlisani, a non-profit company. He has 40 years’ experience working in NGOs across southern Africa as an educator and researcher with a focus on land, livelihoods, poverty and informality.

 

Vanessa Watson is Professor in Planning at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and a university Fellow. She conducts research through the African Centre for Cities. Her research over the last 35 years has focused on urban planning in the global South.