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UCT RESEARCH REPORT 2012
Q
uestions of sanitation, poverty alleviation, congestion, disease, pollution,
physical degradation and unemployment are fundamentally inter-
disciplinary; part of the reason for the failure to combat these problems is
that they have been addressed as distinctive rather than as systemic issues.
There has also been profound neglect of the processes of governance and
civic leverage in rapidly changing urban formations. Equally, there has been
too little attention given to the counter challenges of innovation, fulfilment,
affirmation, dignity and hope in the slums that now characterise most of the
world’s fastest-growing cities in Africa, India, China and Latin America.
The Cities research agenda at UCT aims to keep abreast of these key urban fault
lines and prospects by bringing regulators, legislators, scholars, practitioners,
citizens and activists into regular contact via conferences, seminars, CityLabs, Think
Tanks, and jointly produced research. Informal personal networks make crucial
points of contact and knowledge sharing.
One instance of formally co-produced knowledge in our own backyard is the
immensely innovative and successful programme of hosting selected City of Cape
Town officials in the ACC for two months, and placing PhD students in the City for
seven months a year. The students are working with the City on climate-change
policy, the ‘Green’ economy, and land-economy models. Now in its second year,
the mutual learning and exchange has exceeded expectations. Support from the
Co-produced
Knowledge
A key plank in contemporary Cities research at UCT is the notion
of ‘co-produced knowledge’. The basis of this idea is that cities
are now too large and complex to permit the conceit that any
one profession – let alone any single university department –
can marshal all the information, insight and resources necessary
to deal with the diversity of urban problems.