African Centre for Cities

WEBINAR | Localizing the SDGs in African Cities
2023-05-02 15:00 - 16:30 (Africa/Johannesburg)
On the first UN Science, Technology and Innovation in Africa Day, 2 May 2023, 15:00 SAST, the International Science Council together with the African Centre for Cities present this webinar aimed at exploring effective ways of accelerating local action towards the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in African cities.
BACKGROUND
The African continent represents the key hub in the global transition to a predominantly urban world, with an urban population that is expected to grow threefold by 2050.This unprecedented scale and speed of urbanization comes with new and intensified challenges at the economic, social, and environmental level, which will greatly determine the ways in which cities will grow and develop. If “cities are where the battle for sustainable development will be won or lost”, the fate of African cities will have major implications for the extent to which the world will be able to achieve globally agreed development goals, such as the SDGs by the year 2030 and beyond.
Implementing the SDGs does not take place in a vacuum, as the way in which global and local processes come together in any location are shaped by local history, geography, and politics, among others. Therefore, a recognition of both the global and local significance of the role of African cities requires a much better understanding of the nature, drivers, and management of urbanization, not just in the continent’s megacities but also in its vast number of small- and intermediate-sized towns. It also means interrogating our universally defined understandings of what sustainable development means and the ways in which we think it can be achieved and measured in the African (urban) context.

What are the barriers and constraints to achieving sustainable urbanization in urban Africa? What are enabling factors and opportunities?
What is the role of local action and actors, and how can they be advanced?
Who are the movers and shakers?
And what do we know, and what do we still need to know, in order to answer these questions?

These are the questions that a cohort of African researchers, several of which are coming from the LIRA 2030 Africa community, sought to address in the recently published book Localizing the SDGs in African Cities.
To launch the book and discuss with authors about their practical experiences of how the SDGs can be adapted to and implemented at the local level in ways that contribute to sustainable urbanization, the ISC will convene this webinar on 2 May 2023.
PROGRAMME
Welcome

Katsia Paulavets, LIRA Programme manager, International Science Council

Opening remarks

Shipra Narang, Chief, Urban Practices Branch, Global Solutions Division, UN-Habitat

Keynotes

Susan Parnell, Global Challenges Research Professor in the School of Geography at the University of Bristol and Emeritus Professor at the African Centre for Cities (ACC) at the University of Cape Town
Sylvia Croese, Senior Researcher in the School of Architecture and Planning, University of the Witwatersrand and Research Associate at the African Centre for Cities (ACC) at the University of Cape Town

Speakers

Kareem Buyana – Researcher at Urban Action Lab (UAL), Makerere University Uganda
Safietou Sanfo – Agricultural Economist, Senior Scientist at WASCAL/Associate Professor at Université Thomas Sankara, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
Peter Elias, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Geography, University of Lagos, Nigeria
Gilbert Siame, Associate Professor, Department of Architecture and Planning Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) andDepartment of Geography & Environmental Studies, University of Zambia

Open discussion
Moderated by Katsia Paulavets
REGISTER HERE

Segregation “bit by bit”: digital technologies, housing market and the remaking of post-apartheid Cape Town
2023-04-19 13:00 - 14:00
African Centre for Cities is hosting a seminar by visiting scholar Julien Migozzi, an Urban Studies Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Oxford. Migozzi will present Segregation “bit by bit”: digital technologies, housing market and the remaking of post-apartheid Cape Town, on 19 April, from 13:00-14:00, in Studio 1, Environmental and Geographical Sciences Building, Upper Campus, UCT
ABSTRACT
This presentation will examine the joint processes of digitalisation and financialisation of the housing market in Cape Town, and their consequences on the evolution of urban segregation. Migozzi’s mixed-method framework combines 18 months of fieldwork among real estate professionals with the creation of a database of 900,000 transactions, cross-analysed with longitudinal census data, and covering the entire metropolitan area from 1990 to 2017. For this talk, he will focus on three main points: first, he will unpack how the housing market was reconfigured as a continuous flow of data through the adoption of digital technologies such as credit scoring and automated property valuation, which allow the large scale datafication and classification of South African citizens and properties through an information dragnet of unprecedented sophistication and depth, rooted in the technical legacies of apartheid and colonialism. Second, he will explore how these changing market structures translate into the urban space by mapping the evolution of housing prices and mortgages across the post-apartheid city, and by exploring the emergence of new neighbourhoods around the urban edge, in the context of enduring levels of racial segregation. Third, he will analyse how the reconfiguration of the market around a data imperative enabled a selective financialisation of housing, tracing mortgage securitisation at the neighbourhood level, and documenting the rise of institutional investors powered by rental platforms. Finally, he will try to argue that thinking “from the market” allows us to engage more fully with the understanding of urban segregation in contemporary South Africa, first by acknowledging the central role of credit in shaping neighbourhood change and inequalities, and second by conceptualising a market-based definition of the middle class as a “filtered class”.
BIOGRAPHY
Julien Migozzi is an Urban Studies Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Oxford. His ongoing research combines computational analysis with expert interviews to examine how digital technologies reshape urban housing markets, focusing on post-apartheid South Africa.
WHEN | 19 April 2023
TIME | 13:00-14:00
WHERE | Studio 1, Environmental and Geographical Sciences Building, Upper Campus, UCT

INFO SESSION | DAAD MPhil Southern Urbanism Scholarships
2023-04-04 12:00 - 13:00
The African Centre for Cities, through Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD), are calling for scholarship applications for 2024.

DAAD are offering five In-Region Scholarships* for students from Sub-Saharan Africa who enrol for the MPhil Southern Urbanism (Masters in Urban Studies) programme at the University of Cape Town.

If you are interested in applying for the scholarship but have questions, join MPhil Southern Urbanism convenor Anna Selmeczi for this information session.
WHEN | Tuesday, 4 April 2023
TIME | 12:00-13:00 SAST
REGISTER HERE

BOOK LAUNCH | theoriSE: debating the southeastern turn in urban theories
2023-03-02 15:30 - 17:00
African Centre for Cities invites you to the launch of theoriSE: debating the southeastern turn in urban theories, edited by Oren Yiftachel and Nisa Mammon. This edited volume, based on contribution to the TheoriSE? Workshop held at the University College London in late 2019, features contributions by Gautam Bhan, Mona Fawaz, Amanda Hammar, Mona Harb, Irit Katz, Colin Marx, Faranak Miraftab, Sophie Oldfield, Catalina Ortiz, Susan Parnell, Libby Porter, Jennifer Robinson, AbdouMaliq Simone, Carlos Vainer, Vanessa Watson, Tanja Winkler, Haim Yacobi and Oren Yiftachel.
The book is dedicated to lasting memory, courage, rigour, values and friendship of Professor Vanessa Watson, who was not only a pioneer in Southern urban and planning theory, but also a leading force in organising the workshop.
PROGRAMME
15:30 | Welcome and Introductions – Professor Edgar Pieterse
15:35 | Editors in Conversation – chaired by Professor Edgar Pieterse, with Oren Yiftachel and discussants Mona Fawaz and Mona Harb
16:25 | Open discussion Q&A – chaired by Professor Edgar Pieterse
16:55 | Closing remarks – Professor Nancy Odendaal

WHEN | Thursday, 2 March 2023
TIME | 15:30-17:00
VENUE | Upper Campus Residence Dining Hall (formerly Smuts Hall), Upper Campus, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch

ATTENDING IN PERSON?
RSVP | africancentreforcities@gmail.com
Refreshments served after the launch.

ATTENDING ONLINE?
REGISTER HERE

BOOK LAUNCH | Disrupted Urbanism: Situated Smart Initiatives in African Cities
2023-02-22 15:30 - 17:00
African Centre for Cities is delighted to invite you to the launch of Disrupted Urbanism: Situated Smart Initiatives in African Cities by Prof Nancy Odendaal, Head of Department, School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics, University of Cape Town (UCT).
PLEASE NOTE: The venue for this launch has changed to the Baxter Theatre, Main Road, Rondebosch, Cape Town.
The ‘smart city’ is often promoted as a technology-driven solution to complex urban issues. While commentators are increasingly critical of techno-optimistic narratives, the political imagination is dominated by claims that technical solutions can be uniformly applied to intractable problems. Disrupted Urbanism: Situated Smart Initiatives in African Cities by Prof Nancy Odendaal provides a much-needed alternative view, exploring how ‘homegrown’ digital disruption, driven and initiated by local actors, upends the mainstream corporate narrative. Drawing on original research conducted in a range of urban African settings, Odendaal shows how these initiatives can lead to meaningful change. This is a valuable resource for scholars working at the intersection of science and technology studies, urban and economic geography and sociology.
ACC Senior Research Liza Rose Cirolia. will be the discussant and ACC Deputy Director Assoc Prof Andrew Tucker will chair the session.
WHEN | Wednesday, 22 Feb 2023
TIME | 15:30-17:00 SAST
WHERE | Studio Rehearsal Room, Baxter Theatre, Main Road, Rondebosch, Cape Town. (Please note the updated venue)
Refreshments served after the launch.
Disrupted Urbanism: Situated Smart Initiatives in African Cities is published by Bristol University Press.

Critical Neighbourhoods – The Architecture of Contested Communities
2023-02-15 13:00 - 14:00
ACC invites you to join us as we host the editor of Critical Neighbourhoods – The Architecture of Contested Communities, Paulo Moreira, Porto-based architect and researcher on Wednesday, 15 February for an online lunchtime talk on the book.
Please note: Due to student action on the UCT campus, this event has been moved online.
ABSTRACT
At a time when architectural and urban studies are moving towards seeking to accept and understand informal neighbourhoods rather than ignoring or eradicating them, the need for experiments on the ground is becoming increasingly urgent. In recent years, a growing number of architects and spatial practitioners have begun to act on their commitment to the idea that these settlements are here to stay and require selective intervention. Critical Neighbourhoods – The Architecture of Contested Communities analyses recent studies and practical actions in three different continents (Africa, America and Asia). The volume is published by Park Books and edited by Paulo Moreira, with contributions by Elisa Silva, Julia King, Matthew Barac and Ines Weizman, and a preface by AbdouMaliq Simone.
BIOGRAPHY
Paulo Moreira is a Porto-based architect and researcher. He received his doctorate from London Metropolitan University, and graduated from the Faculty of Architecture, University of Porto (Portugal). Moreira authored chapters in academic journals and edited independent publications on informal neighbourhoods. He was awarded several grants and prizes, including: Prize for Social Entrepreneurship (London Met, 2009) and Noel Hill Travel Award (American Institute of Architects – UK Chapter, 2009). He was a finalist in the RIBA President’s Award for Research 2019, Cities & Community category. He is the editor of Critical Neighbourhoods – The Architecture of Contested Communities (Park Books, 2022).

WHEN | Wednesday, 15 February
TIME | 13:00-14:00
VENUE | Due to student action on the UCT campus, this talk has been move online.
ZOOM LINK | https://bit.ly/3HZI43r

On Trauma Imaginaries: Exploring the Intersections of Race, Place, and Planning
2023-02-14 15:30 - 16:30
Join ACC as we host an online seminar by Jocelyn Poe, Visiting Assistant Professor and Provost Faculty Fellow at Cornell University, entitled On Trauma Imaginaries: Exploring the Intersections of Race, Place, and Planning, on Tuesday, 14 February at 15:30.
Please note: Due to student action on the UCT campus, this event has been moved online.
ABSTRACT
Working as a practicing planner in primarily black communities, I noticed a pattern of visceral reactions to planning processes. This pattern exposed a psycho-socio-cultural phenomenon that aligned with the characteristics of trauma. While planning theory has long acknowledged the profession’s role in producing racialised spatial realities, few have explored how place-based trauma shape places, spatial processes, and spatial imaginaries. To fill this gap, I analyse my experience in practice through autoethnography, and then, I assess the validity of this theory by exploring these concepts in South Central Los Angeles (SCLA), a place radically different from Mississippi. Through this process, I identify, describe, and conceptualise this phenomenon as trauma imaginaries, the intersection of spatial imaginaries and communal trauma. In doing so, I developed a theory of communal trauma to understand how places hurt and how this hurt impacts spatial processes. I found that trauma was preventing places from achieving healthy growth and collective well-being, and this trauma was directly linked to historical injustices.
BIO
Jocelyn Poe, Ph.D. is a Visiting Assistant Professor and Provost Faculty Fellow at Cornell University, while also practicing as a certified planner with the American Planning Association. Her research engages mixed and remixed qualitative methodologies to explore how place, planning, and well-being intersect to spatialize injustice and inequity. Using her experiences as a practitioner in Jackson, Mississippi, she builds theory on communal trauma and trauma imaginaries to describe and understand a psycho-socio-cultural phenomenon happening in place and impacting planning processes. This trauma work informs an approach to a reparative praxis that can help planners achieve social justice and equity outcomes in historically underserved communities.
RESPONDENT | Nisa Mammon, Adjunct Professor, African Centre for Cities and Managing Director and Principal Planner, NM & Associates Planners and Designers
WHEN | Tuesday, 14 February 2023
TIME | 15:30-16:30
VENUE | Due to student action on the UCT campus, this event has been moved online.
ZOOM LINK | https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87507483039?pwd=[REDACTED]

Between ACC and the field: a reflection on two years of learning
2023-02-08 15:30 - 17:00
ACC invites you to join us as researcher Andrea Pollio reflects on his time as Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellow jointly at the African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town, and at the department of Urban and Regional Studies (DIST) at the Polytechnic of Turin. Andrea‘s talk will draw insights and lessons from his fieldwork on tech investment in Nairobi and his institutional embeddedness at ACC. Prof. Nancy Odendaal (Head of Department for the School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics) and Alicia Fortuin (Researcher, ACC) will act as respondents.

Once overlooked in discussions about the emerging geopolitics of infrastructure, cities in the global south are now recognised as sites where competing great powers materialise their diplomatic and geoeconomic interests through the financing of infrastructure systems such as railway corridors and ports. Yet these cities, African cities in particular, also play a vital role as testbeds of new technological standards in the scramble for digital infrastructure. From the operating systems of affordable smartphones, to the inaccessible server rooms of national data centers, booming African capitals like Nairobi are the experimental edge of a shift towards China in the technopolitics of the so-called ‘4th Industrial Revolution’.

To illustrate this point, his presentation draws upon an ongoing research project about the presence of Chinese technology companies, start-ups and investors in Nairobi, one of Africa’s so-called Silicon Savannahs and one of the continent’s most acclaimed digital innovation scenes. The talk will combine insights from his fieldwork in Kenya with what Andrea’s learnt at the African Centre for Cities, through his institutional embeddedness and the possibilities that were offered by the centre’s agendas and networks.
WHEN | Wednesday, 8 February 2023
TIME | 15:30-17:00, with light refreshments served after
VENUE | Studio 5, Environmental and Geographical Sciences Building, Upper Campus, University of Cape Town

BIOGRAPHY
Andrea Pollio is Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellow jointly at the African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town, and at the department of Urban and Regional Studies (DIST) at the Polytechnic of Turin. His research interests are situated at the intersection of Science and Technology Studies (STS), urban studies and development economics. His published works mostly address the interface between technology, development and urbanization in Africa. Andrea’s current book project charts the landing of private Chinese technology capital in Nairobi’s Silicon Savannah.

LAUNCHING THE URBAN ACADEMY: Smart cities, clever urbanism: digitally enabled practices in urban Africa
2022-12-06 15:00 - 18:00 | Workshop 17, 32 Kloof Street, Cape Town
In 2021 the African Centre for Cities (ACC), an action-oriented research hub based at the University of Cape Town and UNITAC, the result of a partnership between the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), the United Nations Office for Information and Communication Technology (UN OICT), and the City Science Lab @HafenCity University in Hamburg (CSL), initiated a collaborative platform for shared research interests under the banner of the Urban Academy. The collaboration is based on a shared interest in unpacking the intersection of technology, society, and cities to examine democratic decision-making, new models of service delivery, and the future of work.
Supported by the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt, we are delighted to invite you to the official launch of the Urban Academy on the 6 December 2022 that will be facilitated by Nokukhanya Mncwabe, a human rights consultant who enjoys forming, implementing and pulling apart policies and projects, forging friendships across geographies and disciplines, and being a tourist at home (Africa).
WHEN | Tuesday, 6 December 2022
TIME | 15:00-18:00 SAST
WHERE | Workshop 17, 32 Kloof Street, Gardens, Cape Town
RSVP | Please send an email to africancentreforcities@gmail.com
Panel one: Introducing the Urban Academy: Smart Cities, Clever Urbanism
In the first panel, partnering directors Edgar Pieterse (ACC) and Gesa Ziemer (UNITAC and City Science Lab) will introduce why thinking about people-centred smartness is important for urban sustainability and justice from their different perspectives.
Panel two: RISE Cities: Different approaches to make our cities more resilient, intelligent, sustainable, and equitable
This interactive panel hosted by RISE Cities explores innovative urban practices in achieving resilient, intelligent, sustainable and equitable solutions and the role of responsible leadership. We are happy to invite the following to share their perspectives and facilitate their reflections:
Resilience – Dr Rudi Kimmie, TSIBA
Intelligence – Saidah Nash Carter, Bright Insights Global
Sustainability – Murendi Mafumo, Kusini Water
Equity – Brian Green, Group 44
Panel three: Young and Online in African Cities: people-centred smartness and urban wellbeing
In the third panel we explore tech-enabled ways of making lives in African cities. The following panellists will bring brief reflections into a wider conversation about what it takes to shape research agendas about the role of technology in urban justice. It is also an opportunity to introduce a new collaboration under the Urban Academy, supported by the Robert Bosch Stiftung entitled Young and Online in African Cities.
Rike Sitas – Introduction: Youth in digital city-making
Daanyaal Loofer – From undersea cables to street corners: smart African cities
Alicia Fortuin – Platformization and the future of work
Neil Hassan – Safe queer digital spaces
Liza Cirolia – Techno-ambivalence and socio-technical infrastructure
Hilke Berger – A research agenda for the Urban Academy?

Space is limited so please RSVP to africancentreforcities@gmail.com with the subject line: Urban Academy RSVP. If you require any further information, please contact rike.sitas@uct.ac.za.

African Infrastructure Futures: Building Common Purpose for Urban Success
2022-11-22 - 2022-11-23
The African Centre for Cities, along with its hosting partners, convene the African Infrastructure Futures Conference from 21-23 November 2022, in Cape Town, South Africa. The conference is curated as follows: Day 1 will adopt a more traditional academic conference format and Day 2 and 3 will focus on the substance of policy and practice debates.
POLICY CONFERENCE | 22-23 November 2022
The starting point of the two-day policy conference will be to establish a shared sense of urgency about the effects of dysfunctional urbanisation amidst an unfolding climate emergency that threatens to destroy infrastructure, livelihoods and inter-generational mobility. The voices of youthful African climate activists will set the scene.
Next, we get concrete by defining in precise terms what the sustainable infrastructure opportunity is to forge a unique African pathway to address urbanisation and broader green growth imperatives.
Then, we locate the sustainable urban infrastructure imperative within the larger pan-African vision and programme for a common market and more diverse economies, but all aligned with commitments in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) for carbon reduction and imperatives of green industrialisation as promoted by UNECA. This is to acknowledge that cities can’t make progress without national government buy-in and leadership.
On the back of definitional clarity and macro implications, the discussion will shift to questions of financing sustainable infrastructure and divesting from unsustainable technologies. There’s been a proliferation of discussions about the infrastructure gap. Instead of rehearsing those arguments, we focus on three examples of attempted innovation and ask DFIs what it will take to mainstream these initiatives across Africa.
However, it would be a grave error to suggest that mainstreaming sustainable infrastructure approaches is simply a matter of technical competence and political will. It demands mindset change within society and leaders because too many Africans remain enamoured by visions of future urbanity that are carbon copies of Dubai, Singapore and Shanghai. To insinuate this dimension into the conference we’ll host a TED-style talk by one of Africa’s leading architects, which will serve as a reminder that our challenge is not simply to provide infrastructure but to create cities filled with opportunity, beauty and cultural resonance. Cities are always civilisational projects.
Sound data is essential for evidence-based policy making and transparency fuels accountability and performance. The conference will explore the role of research, data, learning and intelligent feedback loops in forging partnerships to drive increased investment in sustainable infrastructure.
Lastly, given the unique conditions that confront African cities, it is essential that we invest in the creation of “city-level innovation ecosystems” to support the transition from unsustainable to sustainable infrastructure and urbanism.

DOWNLOAD THE PROGRAMME

The Conference has reached capacity.

African Infrastructure Futures Conference: Urban research, debates and priorities
2022-11-21 07:30 - 20:00
The African Centre for Cities, along with its hosting partners, convene the African Infrastructure Futures Conference from 21-23 November 2022, in Cape Town, South Africa. The conference is curated as follows: Day 1 will adopt a more traditional academic conference format and Day 2 and 3 will focus on the substance of policy and practice debates.
THE ACADEMIC CONFERENCE | 21 November 2022
The one-day Academic Conference programme will kick-off with a keynote presentation by Prof Dilip M Menon, Centre for Indian Studies in Africa, Director, and Mellon Chair in Indian Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. The presentation is entitled Drowning Cities: Thinking urbanism in the age of global warming.
Three parallel sessions are structured along four thematic tracks:
TRACK A – Design/Resilience
Session 1: How Africa’s marginalised urban majority reframes the sustainability agenda
Session 2: Resilience as a concept, infrastructural practice, and/or (re)imagination
Session 3: Redirecting urban trajectories through speculative design practices and dispositions
TRACK B – Power/Governance
Session 1: Power and politics from urban peripheries
Session 2: States and possibilities of urban infrastructure policymaking
Session 3: Plural governance regimes: urban politics beyond the state
TRACK C – Networks/Frontier
Session 1: Finance as & of infrastructure: reframing financial and fiscal frontiers
Session 2: Platformed cities and citizen
Session 3: Enduring and emerging spatial imaginaries: from SEZs to ring road
TRACK D – Everyday/Hybridity
Session 1: Infrastructure’s multiplicities-circulations, adaptations, and composites
Session 2: Everyday socio-infrastructural encounters in African cities
Session 3: Decaying, caring and repairing urban infrastructure
The day will conclude with a panel discussion entitled Propositions of the Present: Closing Reflections on the Potentials and Pathways for Urban Infrastructure Scholarship from Africa.

DOWNLOAD THE PROGRAMME
The Academic Conference has reached capacity.

JOBURG BOOK LAUNCH | Panya Routes
2022-10-22 12:00 - 13:00
African Centre for Cities invites you to celebrate the Johannesburg book launch of Panya Routes: Independent art spaces in Africa by Research Associate Dr Kim Gurney at Stokvel Gallery.
DATE | Saturday, 22 October 2022
TIME | 12:00 noon
VENUE | Stokvel Gallery, 27 Boxes, 4th Avenue, Melville
SPEAKER | Mokena Makeka, Adjunct Professor at Cooper Union and Principal at Dalberg
Panya Routes, published by Motto Books, is about the do-it-yourself, do-it-together working principles of independent art spaces on the continent. The title refers to back roads or pathways collectively fashioned as escape routes or pragmatic workarounds, thoroughfares for more nimble travellers. It speaks to the self-assembly of spaces built for purpose not profit, collectively run and often artist-led or infused with artistic thinking. Creating their own infrastructures, such spaces offer breathing room and act as urban indicators in fast-changing cities of flux, Gurney posits, and positions their alternative modes of institution-building as a form of artistic practice.
Stokvel Gallery is a prime example and in fact features in the book as emblematic of the collective structures (‘merry-go-rounds’) that artists fashion when faced with prevailing uncertainty, and was a trigger for its research. Panya Routes spans Nairobi (GoDown Arts Centre), Accra (ANO Institute), Cairo (Townhouse), Addis Ababa (Zoma Museum) and Dar es Salaam (Nafasi Art Space). It makes correlations between artistic practices in these shapeshifting spaces, and everyday know-how circulating in public life to surface working principles that are shared. Art is not only for saying things; it can sometimes do things and institute social imaginaries that exceed the status quo, as Gurney’s book attests.
At this launch event, Mokena Makeka will give a reflection on the dynamic relationship between contemporary art, art practices and space, and the African city. Artist, curator and lecturer Gordon Froud will introduce his creation – the host venue. Kim Gurney will link the speakers with brief reference to Panya Routes.
For more information on the book go to Motto Books. Kim’s other two books are rooted in Johannesburg inner city: August House is Dead, Long Live August House! and The Art of Public Space.
Panya Routes was made possible with generous support from Alfred Herrhausen Gesellschaft, Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona and South African Research Chair in Urban Policy.

MPhil Southern Urbanism Info Session
2022-10-13 10:00 - 11:00, 2022-08-11 10:00 - 11:00
The MPhil Southern Urbanism is designed to cultivate the next generation of urban thinkers from the South, who are rooted in the realities, theories and practise of cities of the Global South.
Drawing together a diverse cohort of scholar and practitioners, the programme utilises a combination of guided learning in small-group seminars, experimentation in various spaces of urban practice and independent thesis research to ground students in Urban Studies theory, and new research methodologies.
APPLICATIONS DEADLINE INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS: 31 October 2022
APPLICATIONS DEADLINE SA STUDENTS: 30 November 2022
If you are interested in applying for the MPhil Southern Urbanism programme but still have some questions? This info session, hosted by programme convenor, Dr Anna Selmeczi will provide a brief overview of the pedagogical approach, programme structure and entry requirements, as well as discussion time to answer all your questions.
REGISTER HERE

Power Talks Public Discussion
2022-10-12 19:00 - 20:30
Join ACC and the Goethe Institut for a reflection session on Power Talks, a programme which explored the nuanced forms, dynamics and functions of power in creative and cultural sectors in South Africa.
Over the past two months a series of multidisciplinary, site specific programmes took place in Gqeberha and Bisho, Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg. The programmes intended to serve as provocations for a dialectic on the nuanced forms, dynamics and functions of power prevalent within the respective cultural scenes examined. It delivered a rich and varied experience, conversation and engagement over the four sites and this reflection session provides an opportunity to share insights across the programme and sites.
WHEN | Wednesday, 12 October 2022
TIME | 19:00-20:30
REGISTER HERE
PROGRAMME
19:00 – Introduction and framing of the session
19:10 – Goethe Institut input
19:20 – Power Talks Durban reflection
19:30 – Power Talks Eastern Cape reflection
19:40 – Power Talks Johannesburg reflection
19:50 – Power Talks Cape Town reflection
20:00 – Discussion and Q&A
20:20 – Closing remarks

PANEL | What is Critical Urbanism?
2022-09-27 16:00 - 17:30
ACC is delighted to host a panel discussion centred on the newly published What is Critical Urbanism? edited by Kenny Cupers, Sophie Oldfield, Manuel Herz, Laura Nkula-Wenz, Emilio Distretti, and Myriam Perret. Rather than a book launch this panel discussion, which takes place on Tuesday, 27 September from 16:00 to 17:30 will delve deeper into the book to unpack some of the debates and themes.
Understanding and managing urban change in our global era demands a high degree of specialised and interdisciplinary knowledge. At the same time, city planners, architects, researchers, policymakers, and activists are deeply immersed in the chaotic and often contradictory urban realities that they are asked to address. What is Critical Urbanism? offers an innovative toolkit for engaging these present realities across disciplinary specialisations and geographic purviews.
Central to the book is the research and pedagogy of the Critical Urbanisms programme at the University of Basel, established in collaboration with the African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town. The programme’s renowned and emerging urbanists demonstrate the power of working with care and reciprocity across different contexts and institutions, driven by engagement with varied communities of practice.
PANELISTS
Prof Ola Uduku, Head of the School of Architecture and Roscoe Chair of Architecture, University of Liverpool
Dr Emilio Distretti, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Basel
Dr Maren Larsen, Lecturer, University of Basel
Isabella Baranyk, Contributor and Student in Critical Urbanisms, University of Basel
CHAIR
Dr Laura Nkula-Wenz, Lecturer and Student affairs coordinator for the MA in Critical Urbanisms, University of Basel, based at the African Centre for Cities
WHEN | Tuesday, 27 September 20222
TIME | 16:00-17:30 SAST
REGISTER HERE

SEMINAR | Housing Opportunities for All
2022-09-22 15:30 - 17:00
ACC together with the Development Action Group (DAG), will be hosting a seminar entitled Housing Opportunities for All, presented by Dr Krista Paulsen and Dr Vanessa Fry, both fellows of the Mandela Washington Fellowship Programme. The Seminar, on Thursday 22 September 2022, from 15:30 to 17:00 will be chaired by Ryan Fester, project coordinator for DAG, one of Cape Town’s leading land and housing NGOs.

Dr Vanessa Fry and Dr Krista Paulsen, of Boise State University, are currently working with Ryan Fester of DAG to explore the challenges and solutions to providing affordable, accessible housing. Both Boise, Idaho, and Cape Town, are confronting accelerated growth and housing disparities associated with amenity-based migration and legacies of inequalities. Both scholars will share accounts and analyses of the Boise housing markets as well as the detailed strategies being employed to increase housing access in the region. With Fester, they will work to draw parallels to the Cape Town context and discuss with participants possible common solutions.

Dr Krista Paulsen, is a trained urban sociologist and practitioner of qualitative research methods. Krista has published and presented on dimensions of urban and neighbourhood change including processes of gentrification, tourism incursion into neighbourhoods, and social inequality and exclusion – all of which will be addressed in this exchange. Through her research and her role as Programme Lead for Urban Studies and Community Development, she has developed numerous community partnerships that benefit both students and the larger Boise community, including multiple community-engaged research projects on housing access and affordability. She has experience developing international collaborations between universities and is positioned to integrate products of this exchange into the curriculum within Boise State’s Interdisciplinary Programs.

Dr Vanessa Fry is the Director of Idaho Policy Institute and Associate Research Faculty at Boise State University in Boise, ID, and Adjunct Faculty at Presidio Graduate School in San Francisco, CA. She leads students, staff, and faculty in providing innovative and objective mixed-methods research to help public sector, private sector, and nonprofit leaders overcome challenges and navigate change. She has focused both her work (both research and teaching) and education on utilising multi-sector, evidenced-based solutions to address persistent social, environmental, and economic issues and meet the current and critical needs in communities. Her work requires identification and equitable engagement of collaborators, flexibility, creativity, and tenacity. She holds a BA in biology and fine art from Wittenberg University (Ohio, USA), a MBA in sustainable management from Presidio Graduate School (California, USA), and a PhD from Boise State University (Idaho, USA).

WHEN | Thursday, 22 September 2022
TIME | 15:30 to 17:00
VENUE | Davies Reading Room, Environmental and Geographical Sciences Building, Upper Campus, UCT

OPEN DAY | MPhil Southern Urbanism
2022-09-15 12:00 - 13:30
The world is transitioning to an irrevocable urban future whose epicentre has moved into the cities of Asia and Africa, which together will account for 86% of all growth in the world’s urban population over the next four decades.
This unprecedented increase will pose new environmental, economic and social challenges, which demand new understandings given that city-making and remaking are entangled in these vast multi-dimensional shifts. We need fresh theories to shape our urban futures.
The MPhil Southern Urbanism seeks to nurture the next generation of urban scholars from Africa rooted in Southern city perspectives.
Join the African Centre for Cities for the MPhil Southern Urbanism Open Day to learn about the programme.
PROGRAMME
12:00-12:15 What is Southern Urbanism? — Prof Edgar Pieterse
12:15-12:35 MPhil Programme Overview — Dr Anna Selmeczi
12:35-12:55 City as Classroom
12:55-13:10 Student input
13:10-13:30 Open Q&A
WHEN | Thursday, 15 September 2022
TIME | 12:-13:30
WHERE | Davies Reading Room, Environmental and Geographical Sciences Building, Upper Campus, UCT
Light refreshments served

SEMINAR | Thinking problematically about the city: Planning as a site of innovation
2022-08-12 12:00 - 13:30
African Centre for Cities (ACC) invites you to join us for an in-person seminar with Dr James Duminy, ACC Honorary Research Associate, and Lecturer at the School of Geographical Sciences, and Bristol Poverty Institute, at the University of Bristol. The seminar entitled Thinking problematically about the city: Planning as a site of innovation, takes place on Friday, 12 August at 12:00-13:15.
ABSTRACT
Urban innovation cannot be limited to the harnessing of technologies sourced from the private sector, civil society engagements, and the entrepreneurial spirit of informality within models of governance that position the city as a laboratorial site of experimentation. What government does, and what built environment professions do, in and through governance-related activities, including the establishment of durable procedures of government, must be incorporated into the purview of urban innovation. Yet, typically the place and role of the state within urban governance remains caught within a limiting critique of neoliberalism or a depiction of the state as incorrigible, at best, and oppressive, at worst. Planning, for its part, is presented in some critical accounts as a monolithic domain of state stasis; a procedural system for the reproduction of pre-existing and future inequalities. However, an alternative view of city transformation would place urban planning as a potential driver of governance innovation. Here we draw upon recent experiences of planning reform in South Africa, focusing on the development and application of a process known as the Built Environment Performance Plan (BEPP), to consider the implications of seeing the state as a site of problematization, and planning as a site of innovation in urban governance. Such a perspective draws attention to the temporalities of response, rupture, uneven institutionalization, and setback that attend acts and processes of innovation unfolding within the state. It highlights the demand for successful innovations to navigate cross-sectoral and multi-scalar imperatives, and draws attention to the enduring need to establish meaningful links between the fiscus and other modes and instruments of governance that can sustain or transform urban regimes.
WHEN | Friday, 12 August 2022
TIME | 12:00-13:15pm
VENUE | Studio 3, Environmental and Geographical Sciences Building, Upper Campus, UCT

BOOK LAUNCH | Panya Routes by Kim Gurney
2022-08-11 17:30 - 19:30
African Centre for Cities invites you to celebrate the launch of Panya Routes: Independent art spaces in Africa by research associate Kim Gurney.
The author will be in conversation with, composer and multimedia artist, Neo Muyanga.
Panya Routes, published by Motto Books, is about the do-it-yourself, do-it-together working principles of independent art spaces on the continent. Such spaces are built for purpose not profit and act as urban indicators in fast-changing cities of flux. Art is embedded into everyday life; it’s not only for saying things but also for doing things.
DATE | Thursday 11 August
TIME | 17:30 for 18:00
VENUE | A4 Arts Foundation, 23 Buitenkant Street, Cape Town
For more information on the book go to Motto Books.
This book was made possible with generous support from Alfred Herrhausen Gesellschaft, Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona and South African Research Chair in Urban Policy.

Food Dialogues
2022-07-18 08:00 - 2022-08-01 17:00
How are digital technologies disrupting our food system? What will be the impact of cultured meat? How has food shaped the spaces and places that define our city? These and other questions will be explored in Cape Town during the two-week 2022 Food Dialogues programme through a range of experiences: from expert panel discussions to hands-on cooking classes for grown-ups and kids, walking tours, communal meals and art installations, from Monday, 18 July until Monday, 1 August 2022.
Returning to physical spaces this year, Food Dialogues offers the chance to connect with our future food shapers in person and while there is much to feed all senses, the essence of Food Dialogues is to engage in a critical conversation about how food shapes and enables our lives, explore the unjustness of our food system and how we can move towards one that helps us to flourish as people, families and society.
The programme will consider our present day societal relationship with food by looking at key aspects of our food system – where we buy our food from and how nourished we are from the food we eat – as well as how we can better partner to govern our food system, and how the medium of food itself can bring us insight, connection and joy.
Some events are free to attend while others are paid but all participants must register at fooddialogues.info
Food Dialogues is hosted by the SA Urban Food & Farming Trust with co-host and sponsor SOLVE@Waterfront. Co-sponsored by the DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Food Security, event partners include the Western Cape Economic Development Partnership, African Centre for Cities, the Southern Africa Food Lab, The Oranjezicht City Farm Market, Bertha House, Philippi Village, City of Cape Town, Western Cape Government, and Derrick Integrated Communications.

Next Practice Urbanisation – an International Building Exhibition in Africa!
2022-06-29 14:15 - 15:15
ACC together with GIZ is hosting a session entitled Next Practice Urbanisation – an International Building Exhibition in Africa!, as part of the Urban Library at the World Urban Forum, which takes place from 26-30 June 2022 in Katowice, Poland.
The GIZ together with the African Centre for Cities, and the London School of Economics in Addis Ababa, explored the possibility of applying the principles of an IBA (Internationale BauAusstellung) in the African context. For over 100 years, innovative solutions to urgent local development challenges have been implemented by IBAs in Germany, and lately also in Europe. Is the IBA transferable for African government leaders and urban experts who need access to integrative, participatory models that can demonstrate how the complex challenges of urban transformation in Africa can be addressed?
At this event the booklet “Building Cities for the Future – An exploration of possibilities for an Internationale Bauausstellung (IBA) in Africa” will be launched by ACC and the GIZ. We are living at a decisive turning point. Urbanisationis developing at a historically unprecedented speed and scale, especially in Africa and Asia. The growing need for affordable housing will be a huge challenge for the decision-makers at various levels of government. The current decade will decide whether we will manage to set global and local development on a just and sustainable track or whether we will continue to follow fossil development paths that will make social, economic and ecological life unviable.
The need for investments and infrastructure to meet the rising demands of rapid urban growth in Africa and other parts of the world, alongside the imperative to retrofit existing cities, is pressing and considerable. Whether these will be integrated into effective and future-oriented urban planning and provide new perspectives for the largely poor and informal urban population is, however, uncertain. The continent’s challenge and opportunity lie in building future cities that minimize both ecological and social risks.
The approach of “Internationale Bauausstellungen” (IBA – German for International Building Exhibition) holds the potential of stimulating cross-sectoral and anticipatory planning approaches linked to the implementation of innovative urban regeneration on the ground. IBAs have been among the most influential instruments of innovative urban development in and outside Germany for over 100 years. In situations that demand urgent socio-economic change, IBAs develop model-built solutions for future-oriented cities.
The IBA guide, which will be launched at the event, offers insights on how IBAs function as an interesting urban governance instrument. It is based on the results of the GIZ project International Building Exhibition (IBA) Africa – Building Cities for the Future. The aim of this project is to develop possibilities, explore preconditions and topics for an IBA-inspired innovation approach in urban development in Africa, together with executives and stakeholders from Cape Town and Addis Ababa, and in exchange with German IBA experts and practitioners. The IBA guide is intended to serve as an inspiration for how the IBA approach could be applicable for African cities.
At this event the experiences gained of these explorative processes will be presented and discussed in the context of future inclusive and climate-friendly urbanization in Africa. The IBA concept and existing examples are briefly presented at the beginning. The presentation of the guide and explanatory film (Building Cities for the Future – What Is an IBA?) will be followed by an open dialogue between the project partner Prof. Edgar Pieterse, Director of the ACC, representatives of African cities and members of the IBA Expert Council to discuss the contribution IBAs can make to the implementation of the SDGs and the NUA in cities.

SPEAKERS
Edgar Pieterse, Moderator, African Centre for Cities (ACC)

Timnit Eshetu, Panelist, Urban Age Task Force Addis Ababa

Jan Schultheiß, Panelist, Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Building

Andrew Boraine, Panelist, Western Cape Economic Development Partnership

Flavia Gwiza, Panelist, Rwandan Architect

WHEN | 29 June 2022
TIME | 14:15-15:15

MORE ON THE WORLD URBAN FORUM HERE

INFO SESSION | Systems Integrators for Sustainable African Cities
2022-06-06 13:30 - 14:30
From siloed practitioner to systems integrator for sustainable African city futures – the new Masters programme, convened by the African Centre for Cities, at the University of Cape Town cultivates a new generation of urban practitioner.
The complex, multi-dimensional demands of our rapidly urbanising world require holistic, inter-disciplinary thinking and practice. However traditional professional paradigms and often-siloed institutions seem doomed to replicate the entrenched patterns and practices of path-dependent urban infrastructure provision and management. To overcome the often-fragmented ways in which urban questions are framed, institutionalised, and engaged by varied levels of government, citizens, civil society organisations, and private sector actors, we need a new kind of urban practitioner, who can work across practices, professional norms, hierarchies, sectors and urban problems.
To meet this need, the African Centre for Cities (ACC), UCT, launched a new Masters in Sustainable Urban Practice, which seeks to cultivates urban integrators who are able to discern opportunities for integration, and can build the necessary coalitions for change; who are confident in varied cultures of communication and can build bridges between sectors, fields, and scales of urban practice.
Join this information session with Prof Edgar Pieterse, director of the African Centre for Cities, and South African Research Chair in Urban Policy, and programme convenor Dr Mercy Brown-Luthango.
WHEN | Monday, 6 June 2022
TIME | 13:30-14:30 SAST
REGISTER HERE
MORE ABOUT THE PROGRAMME

Shifting systems: infrastructure innovation for sustainable African cities
2022-05-23 13:00 - 14:45
Africa’s cities are amongst the fastest growing in the world and present an unprecedented opportunity to leapfrog unsustainable urban development patterns observed elsewhere. This requires an ability to imagine the innovative possibilities for African cities, and ongoing learning by decision makers to break inertia. This is the first in a series of sessions at Rise Africa aimed at helping city decision makers to reimagine the future infrastructures of Africa’s cities, to bring more innovative and sustainable cities to life.
Hosted by the African Centre for Cities and the Urban Futures Studio, this session will generate insights and spark discussion that will inform a new two-year project aimed at fostering learning around infrastructure innovation for sustainable African cities.
WHEN | 23 MAY 2022
TIME | 13:00-14:45 (GMT+2)
REGISTER HERE

Film Screening and Discussion | Never Surrender
2022-05-12 15:00 - 17:00
Join the African Centre for Cities as we host director M. Reza Shirazi for a screening of his documentary Never Surrender, followed by a discussion on Thursday, 12 May 2022, at 15:00-17:00.
This documentary film is the result of more than two years of research and fieldwork in Bayview-Hunters Point neighbourhood, San Francisco. It narrates the community fight for environmental justice, and documents the conflict between people and government over the safety of the shipyard.
Decades of remediation work at Hunters Point Shipyard, a former military base contaminated during the Second World War and beyond, were revealed to be fraudulent and data was falsified. This turned the biggest redevelopment project in San Francisco into the biggest eco-fraud case in US history.

WHEN | Thursday, 12 May 2022
TIME | 15:00-17:00
VENUE | Pink Room, Lvl 2, Centlivres Building, Upper Campus, UCT

Pairing academia and policy for transdisciplinary research in Africa
2021-12-02 16:00 - 18:00
Join the International Society for Urban Health Africa Working Group for the first discussion in the Urban Health in Africa Webinar Series entitled Pairing academia and policy for transdisciplinary research in Africa.

SPEAKERS

Noxolo Kabane – Deputy Director: Policy Development and Research Coordination, Office of the Premier, Eastern Cape Government

Amy Weimann – Junior Research Fellow, African Centre for Cities and PhD Candidate, School of Public Health and Family Medicine, University of Cape Town

Carlos Dora – President, International Society for Urban Health

WHEN | Thursday, 2 December 2021

TIME | 14:00-16:00 GMT

REGISTER HERE

MPhil Southern Urbanism Info Session
2021-10-19 13:00 - 14:00
The MPhil Southern Urbanism is designed to cultivate the next generation of urban thinkers from the South, who are rooted in the realities, theories and practise of cities of the Global South.

Drawing together a diverse cohort of scholar and practitioners, the programme utilises a combination of guided learning in small-group seminars, experimentation in various spaces of urban practice and independent thesis research to ground students in Urban Studies theory, and new research methodologies.

The application deadline for 2022 South African applicants is on 31 October 2021.

If you are interested in applying for the MPhil Southern Urbanism programme but still have some questions? This info session, hosted by programme convenor, Dr Anna Selmeczi will provide a brief overview of the pedagogical approach, programme structure and entry requirements, as well as discussion time to answer all your questions.

REGISTER HERE

UCT SDG Summit | An Urban Lens on the Achievement of the SDGs
2021-09-09 10:00 - 16:00
A Masterclass alongside the UCT SDG Africa Summit 2021The ACC Masterclass will be structured in three parts, comprised of 75min each. The first session will unpack the political and institutional backstory in ensuring that there was an SDG to address the imperatives of urbanisation, and connections were drawn with other SDGs. The second session will focus on the complexities and contradictions of implementing the SDGs when it is a nexus issue such as urban food security. The analytical focus will fall on the challenge of effective inter-governmental coordination and alignment across scales and sectors. The third session will focus on the practical policy tools that are being deployed at city-level to track the implementation of the SDGs at the local level, considered against the national reporting system of the South African government. This raises institutional questions about fostering a shared perspective when municipal officials remain deeply commitment to sectoral specialisms, as well as issues about alignment and meaningful societal engagement in tracking government performance in delivering on stated commitments. Across the three sessions participants will be exposed to the cutting edges of the interface between applied research and policy implementation.

Session 1 | The genesis of SDG 11: Getting the urban onto the agenda10:00 to 11:15Edgar Pieterse (ACC) in conversation with Aromar Revi (Indian Institute for Human Settlements) and Monika Glinzler (International relations, Department of Human Settlements)

By some estimates, getting the urban question right is a precondition to achieve up to 70% of the overall SDG agenda. However, until the last hour before the finalisation of the seventeen SDGs, there was great doubt that an explicit urban goal would be included. This session will pull the curtain on the backstage advocacy arguments, evidence and diplomatic work that was conducted to secure an urban perspective across the SDGs. It is a given that the multilateral system is not perfect, but for those on the frontlines of policy mainstreaming, it is indispensable and a permanent site of struggle.

Session 2 | Teasing out the tensions: SDGs as a national imperative, and SDG 11 as a city-level goal11:30 to 12:45Gareth Haysom (ACC) in conversation with Jane Battersby (University of Cape Town) and Julian May (University of the Western Cape)

The urban food lens offers a unique scalar perspective bringing the tensions and opportunities presented at the intersection between zero hunger (SDG 2), and sustainable cities (SDG 11), as well as health and well-being (3), education (4) and gender equality (5). The session will engage in both the challenges presented at these intersections between nexus and scalar issues, while attempting to engage the complexities and contradictions of implementing and measuring the SDGs when it is a nexus issue such as urban food and nutrition security, and what this might mean in context, but equally, effective inter-governmental coordination and alignment across scales and sectors.

Session 3 | Lessons towards SDG localisation and indicators14:00 to 15:15Andrew Tucker (ACC) in conversation with Alexis Schäffler-Thomson (Pegasys) and Natasha Primo (City of Cape Town)

It is a given that the SDGs will only find full expression if they become the focus of local action, established within enabling national parameters. There is great potential in using indicator frameworks and monitoring systems to establish productive alignment between national and local governments. This session will share research findings and potential of using local level indicator frameworks to track and reflect on policy efforts to implement the SDGs, whilst being mindful of the statistical challenges of generating local level data. The empirical reference point will be South Africa and Cape Town.

UCT SDG Summit | Circular Economy Pre-Summit Workshops
2021-08-31 14:00 - 16:30
The Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Town is convening an international summit on how the SDGs can best be realised in the African context with an eye on the role of science and mission-driven partnerships.

In the build-up to the Summit, a series of workshops are being organised around seven themes, of which the Circular Economy is one.

READ THE CONCEPT NOTE HERE

WORKSHOP 1 | 17 August, 14:00 to 16:15

The first workshop will explore the definitional debates around the circular economy with an emphasis on the state of macro scholarship and policy positions adopted by select African governments and civil society actors.

Speakers

Prof Ester van der Voet – Leiden University & UN International Resource Panel
Dr Willi Haas – BOKU, Vienna
Bezawit Eshetu – African Circular Economy Network
Reniera O’Donnell – Higher Education Lead at Ellen MacArthur Foundation

Register Closed:

WORKSHOP 2 | 31 August, 14:00 to 16:15

The second workshop will be an exploration of circular economy applications through case studies with an eye on research questions and issues.

Speakers

Prof Christina Trois – University of KwaZulu-Natal
Kirsten Barnes – GreenCape
Paul Currie – ICLEI Africa
Sudhir Pillay – Water Research Commission
Prof Harro von Blottnitz – University of Cape Town

Register Closed:

These workshops are open to all who are involved in Circular Economy related work and research.

UCT SDG Summit | Circular Economy Pre-Summit Workshops
2021-08-31 14:00 - 16:30
The Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Town is convening an international summit on how the SDGs can best be realised in the African context with an eye on the role of science and mission-driven partnerships.

In the build-up to the Summit, a series of workshops are being organised around seven themes, of which the Circular Economy is one.

READ THE CONCEPT NOTE HERE

WORKSHOP 1 | 17 August, 14:00 to 16:15

The first workshop will explore the definitional debates around the circular economy with an emphasis on the state of macro scholarship and policy positions adopted by select African governments and civil society actors.

Speakers

Prof Ester van der Voet – Leiden University & UN International Resource Panel
Dr Willi Haas – BOKU, Vienna
Bezawit Eshetu – African Circular Economy Network
Reniera O’Donnell – Higher Education Lead at Ellen MacArthur Foundation

Register here

WORKSHOP 2 | 31 August, 14:00 to 16:15

The second workshop will be an exploration of circular economy applications through case studies with an eye on research questions and issues.

Speakers

Prof Christina Trois – University of KwaZulu-Natal
Kirsten Barnes – GreenCape
Paul Currie – ICLEI Africa
Sudhir Pillay – Water Research Commission
Prof Harro von Blottnitz – University of Cape Town

Register here

These workshops are open to all who are involved in Circular Economy related work and research.
