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This book addresses the on-going crisis of informality in rapidly growing cities of the global South. The authors offer a Southern perspective on planning theory, explaining how the concept of conflicting rationalities complements and expands upon a theoretical tradition which still primarily speaks to global 'Northern' audiences. De Satgé 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. Ethnography, as illustrated in the book's case study - Langa, a township in Cape Town, South Africa - is used to arrive at this conclusion. The authors are thus able to demonstrate how power and conflict between the ambitions of state planners and shack-dwellers, attempting to survive in a resource-poor context, have permeated and shaped all state-society engagement in this planning process.
List of contents
Chapter 1. Introduction.- Chapter 2. Conflicting Rationalities and Southern Planning Theory.- Chapter 3. African Cities: Planning Ambitions and Planning Realities.- Chapter 4. Struggles for Shelter and Survival in Post-Apartheid South African Cities: The Case of Langa.- Chapter 5. Voices From and Within the State.- Chapter 6. Conflicting Rationalities in the N2 Gateway Project: Voices from Langa.- Chapter 7. Implications for Southern Planning Theory and Practice.- Chapter 8. Conclusion.
About the author
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.
Summary
- Addresses a major concern worldwide on planning African (and other global south) cities, especially since the adoption by the UN of the new Urban Sustainable Development Goal in 2016
- Contributes to a current shift in planning theory away from its parochial global North focus to become more international
- Contains fascinating detail on the lives of inhabitants of a Cape Town informal settlement as well as how the South African state has attempted to deal with such settlements
