Publishing
Planning and Transformation: Learning from the Post-Apartheid Experience
In the years after the 1994 transition to democracy in South Africa, planners were convinced that they would be able to successfully promote a vision of integrated, equitable and sustainable cities, and counter the spatial distortions created by apartheid.
Working in Warwick
Working in Warwick offers a fresh look at street traders’ lives, the role they play in city life and their contribution to its economy; and shows that it is possible to include street trading in urban plans in a way that adds to the vibrancy and attraction of cities.
Urbanisation Imperatives for Africa: Transcending Policy Inertia
Urbanization in Africa is real. Most political and policy leaders remain in denial about its centrality and urgency. Urbanization in Africa represents the most complex and intractable policy questions and as long as Africans do not take responsibility to shift the contemporary situation of policy failure, we are in for a crisis. This publication by the African Centre for Cities seeks to offer a resource to policy activists in African governments, development agencies, social movements, universities and business sectors who are committed to addressing the current policy lacuna.
Counter-Currents: Experiments in Sustainability in the Cape Town Region
Available from March 2010: Cape Town is undergoing a growth spurt driven along by both public and private sector investments. In the process a new city is being fashioned in front of our eyes but there are very few book length perspectives on the direction and meaning of this growth. This is particularly alarming given the many intractable problems that stare the city in the face and which require more considered and informed responses.
Cities and Development
Cities and Development brings into conversation debates from urban and development studies. It grapples with both the challenges and opportunities associated with rapid urban change and provides a critical assessment of current policy and planning responses to the contemporary urban challenge.
City Futures: Confronting the Crisis of Urban Development
This book is a powerful indictment of the current consensus on how to cope with the hundreds of “mega-cities” of the developing world. These cities are the future, and the problems surrounding this influx of people–slums, poverty, unemployment and lack of governance–have been well-documented.
City Life from Jakarta
City Life from Jakarta to Dakar examines the potentials of urban life through reflections on cities in Africa and Southeast Asia. It shows how much of what is considered peripheral to urban life is actually critical to it and thereby opens up new ways for understanding what it is possible to do in cities from now on.
Methodology for Inventorying Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Global Cities
This paper describes the methodology and data used to determine greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions attributable to ten cities or city-regions: Los Angeles County, Denver City and County, Greater Toronto, New York City, Greater London, Geneva Canton, Greater Prague, Barcelona, Cape Town and Bangkok.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Global Cities
The world’s population is now over 50 % urban, and cities account for the majority of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Many cities are developing strategies to reduce their emissions. Here we show how and why emissions differ between cities.
Regional Development: Strategies for the Future
Regional development made a dramatic comeback on the international development scene in 2008. It featured prominently in the flagship UN-Habitat publication, State of the World’s Cities 2008/20091 and equally emerged as a strong theme in the World Bank’s annual development report, World Development Report 2009: Reshaping Economic Geography,2 which reinforces the importance of space and place in effective development policy.
Reshaping Cities, Rebuilding Nations: The Role of National Urban Policies
The challenges of rapid urbanisation in large parts of Africa are beyond the capacity of local government to manage. The paper explores the arguments for a national urban policy to complement local strategies, reflecting the unique power of the central state and the special circumstances of cities. With appropriate support, urbanisation could become a more positive force for economic and human development.
Promoting Sustainable Urban Development Networking in African Cities
This report summarizes the presentations and discussions at the SUD‐Net Workshop ‘Promoting Sustainable Urban Development Networking in African Cities’, held at the Townhouse Hotel in Cape Town, South Africa, on 17‐19 February 2009. The event was hosted by UN‐Habitat, the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) and the African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town. Funding was made available by UN‐Habitat and SIDA.