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Sustainable Cities
City and from Mistra Urban Futures, an international
centre for sustainable urban development, has been
vital. A bursary from Bigen Africa for a master’s student
to conduct research on sustainable settlements in
resource-rich parts of South Africa complements the
Department of Chemical Engineering’s new Master of
Philosophy course specialising in sustainable mineral
resource development.
Conscientising diverse publics and constituencies
about critical urban conditions and inequalities is
a key challenge. Likewise, publicising the results of
research and inspiring students and citizens with new
visions for our cities are crucial facets of any university
research programme. The ACC at UCT also supports
scholarship in conventional ways by publishing books,
chapters and academic papers. Recent publications
have covered topics such as urban governance, alcohol
in the city, urban ecology, property law, and urban
climate change. A research monograph about cultural
entrepreneurship as an agent of urban change in West
Africa is anticipated from Dr Jenny Mbaye, recipient
of the prestigious Ray Pahl Fellowship allocated to the
ACC in 2012.
The ACC also strives to communicate and provoke in
unconventional ways, supported in part by a Rockefeller
Innovation Award. The
Cityscapes
magazine and the
African Cities Reader
both aim to publish visually striking
and innovative pieces that present cities and the lives of
their residents in unfamiliar and provocative registers. In
this spirit, too, ACC participated in UCT’s ‘Curate Africa’
event in 2012. With support from the Goethe Institute,
the ACC was also involved in tracking and reflecting on
three public art projects in Johannesburg. In the context of
Cape Town having been designated World Design Capital
2014, the ACC partnered with the Social Justice Coalition
in convening the 5
th
annual Irene Grootboom Memorial
Dialogues, held at two sites in Khayelitsha, as well as
in Woodstock, in the Cape Town CBD, and on the UCT
campus. Leading activists, designers, community leaders,
academics and Cape Town residents debated how design
might be used as an instrument for advancing social justice
and reducing urban inequality.
Cities are here to stay. More than that, in the global South
metropolitan areas medium-sized cities are home to an
increasing number of people, and are the sites where some
of the best social and environmental interventions can be
made for sustaining economies, ecologies and societies.
The diverse research on cities at UCT aims to co-ordinate
and catalyse a fair slice of the inquiry, and to contribute
significantly to policy that improves the prospects of cities
and all their citizens.
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.