REALISING JUST CITIES - LEONIE JOUBERT WITH THE MISTRA URBAN FUTURES REALISING JUST CITIES TEAM - African Centre for Cities
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
REALISING
JUST CITIES
LEONIE JOUBERT WITH
THE MISTRA URBAN FUTURES
REALISING JUST CITIES TEAM
E
Realising
Just Cities
By Leonie Joubert with
the mistra urban futures
Realising Just Cities Team
F i
ii
iii
Frida Zackrisson
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements 2
Foreword 4
Introduction 6
Chapter 1
Realising Just Cities
Keys to the City 14
First published in 2020
By the African Centre for Cities
and Mistra Urban Futures
Chapter 2
Space and Place 24
Chapter 3
Leave No One Behind 40
African Centre for Cities
Level 2, Environmental and Geographical
Sciences Building, Upper Campus Chapter 4
University of Cape Town
Private Bag X3 The Ephemeral City 52
Rondebosch 7701
South Africa
www.africancentreforcities.net Chapter 5
Govern 64
Production Coordination
Rike Sitas and Alma Viviers
Chapter 6
Design
Idea in a Forest Learn 76
Print & Binding
Tandym Print (Pty) Ltd Chapter 7
Imagine 88
ISBN 978-0-620-91017-0
Chapter 8
Previous spread: Stora Hamn
Canal, Gothenburg. Inventing the New 100
iv 1
2
3
barry christianson
Acknowledgements
This book is based on research Author Researchers Supporting Organisations
undertaken by Mistra Urban Leonie Joubert with input from the Mistra Urban The following researchers contributed to CTLIP University of Cape Town; City of Cape
Futures Realising Just Cities research team the research that the book is based on (in Town; Western Cape Provincial Government;
Futures from 2012 to 2019. alphabetical order): Consuming Urban Poverty; dala GOLIP
Chalmers University of Technology; IVL Swedish
The research was funded by Contributors Hans Abrahamsson, Mogamat Adiel Bassier, Environmental Institute; Region Västra Götaland;
Mistra (the Swedish Foundation The following researchers contributed to the Laura Ager, Stephen Agong’, Peter Ahmad, City of Gothenburg; County Administrative
James Ayers, Jane Battersby, Ylva Berglund, Board of Västra Götaland; Gothenburg Region
for Strategic Environmental content of the book (in alphabetical order):
Helene Brembeck, Mercy Brown-Luthango, (GR); University of Gothenburg; City of Borås;
Anton Cartwright, Liza Cirolia, Sean Cooke, Gothenburg’s Cultural School; The Gothenburg
Research), Sida (the Swedish Foreword Edgar Pieterse
Sylvia Croese, Craig Davies, Alice Dahlstrand, City Museum; Tikitut Community-Based
Introduction David Simon
International Development Kristina Diprose, Hanna af Ekström, Tourism Centre; Utopia KLIP Jaramogi Oginga
Amy Davison, Elma Durakovic, Odinga University of Science and Technology
Chapter 1 Keys to the City
Cooperation Agency) and the Rike Sitas, Warren Smit
Catherine Durose, Debbie Ellen, Sara Eliasson, (JOOUST); Maseno University; City of Kisumu;
Magnus Eriksson, Alicia Fortuin, County Government of Kisumu; Dunga Eco-
Gothenburg Consortium. Chapter 2 Space and Place Lorraine Gerrans, Daniel Gillberg, Finder; Lake Victoria Tourism Association;
Mercy Brown-Luthango, Sophie King, Richard Goulding, Saskia Greyling, Kisumu Waste Actors Network Cooperative;
Ulf Ranhagen, Marcela Guerrero Casas, Birgitta Guevara, Kibuye Market Waste Management CBO SMLIP
Anna Gustafsson, Vicky Habermehl, Sheffield University; Jam and Justice Action
Chapter 3 Leave No One Behind Patrick Hayombe, Gareth Haysom, Research Collective, Greater Manchester; Greater
Michael Oloko, Paul Opiyo, Nick Taylor-Buck, Iona Hine, Claire Holderness, Sanna Isemo, Manchester Combined Authority; West Midlands
Sandra Valencia Doung Jahangeer, Sophie King, Åsa Lorentzi, Combined Authority; Greater Manchester
Tim May, Rob McGaffin, Adrian Morley, Housing Action; Sensible Housing Cooperative,
Chapter 4 The Ephemeral City Per Myrén, Benard Ojwang’, Michael Oloko, Bolton; Homes for Change, Manchester; New
Patrick Hayombe, Beth Perry, Rike Sitas, Doris Chandi Ombara, Dan Ong’or, Paul Opiyo, Longsight Housing Cooperative, Manchester;
Niklas Sörum Harrison Otieno, Henrietta Palmer, Zarina Patel, Mums Mart, Manchester; Lower Broughton
Chapter 5 Govern Lilian Paunovic Olsson, Beth Perry, Edgar Pieterse Life, Salford; Brinnington Savers, Stockport;
Liza Cirolia, Michael Oloko, Beth Perry, Merritt Polk, Amie Ramstedt, Ulf Ranhagen, Miles Platting Savers, Manchester; On Top
Bertie Russell Liz Richardson, Jan Riise, David Rogerson, of the World, Manchester; Muungano Wa
Vaughn Sadie, Saul Roux, Bertie Russell, Di Scott, Wanavijiji, Kenya; South Africa SDI Alliance;
Chapter 6 Learn David Simon, Vicky Simpson, Rike Sitas, Global Development Institute, University of
Previous page: Outdoor communal Sanna Isemo, Anna Taylor, Michael Oloko, Jenny Sjödin, Warren Smit, Niklas Sörum, Manchester; Catalyst Collective; Acorn Coop
toilets in Cape Town are a reminder Henrietta Palmer, Rike Sitas Charlie Spring, Catherine Stone, Mie Svennberg, Support; Regather, Sheffield; Heeley City Farm,
of the service delivery challenges Nazem Tahvilzadeh, Anna Taylor, Nick Taylor Sheffield; Food Partnership Board, Sheffield;
that still bedevil some lower income Chapter 7 Imagine Buck, Sandra Valencia, Carol Wright, Sustainable Food Cities; Real Junk Food Sheffield
neighbourhoods in the city. Gareth Haysom, Sophie King, Rike Sitas Tony Whyton & Manchester.
4 5
Foreword by Professor Edgar Pieterse,
Director of the African Centre for Cities
The world has only ten years in which However, it does demand an epistemic revolu-
tion because just cities are unattainable without
to take the necessary political and the confluence of multiple knowledge systems —
economic actions to fulfil the Sustainable some scientifically codified, and many tacit, lived,
Development Goals. In the wake of intuited, and profoundly embodied. Our mod-
ern governance and policy institutions remain
2019, which ended with a profoundly
trapped in sectoral silos, though, which stems
disappointing UN climate negotiation from disciplinary specialisations, hierarchical
process in Spain, escalation of US military mindsets, and opacity. Our universities are equal-
aggression, the coming to pass of Brexit, ly plagued by knowledge silos and fragmentation,
and despite three decades of discourse on inter-
and the rise of rightwing authoritarianism and trans-disciplinarity, are still essentially blink-
in almost all world regions, it is difficult ered and apart from society. At the same time,
to be hopeful about the success of the scientific method and truth have come under at-
tack from regressive political forces undermining
SDGs. This is especially true with regard
the very possibility of knowledge as freedom.
to reducing inequality, dramatically It is against this backdrop that the Mistra
cutting back on carbon emissions, and Urban Futures programme was established a
environmental sustainability. decade ago. Its mission was to demonstrate that
it is possible to create deliberate and inclusive
processes that can allow for different kinds of
This situation could easily produce despondency data and knowledge to confront shared urban
and abdication. However, maybe the problem challenges. Its aim is to generate new and use-
is our optics? What if we stop obsessing with na- ful insights about novel ways of framing issues
tional governments and international relations, and generating actionable decisions that revel
and rather privilege the millions of intention- in openness and transparency, which is the
driven actions across cities and towns in both lifeblood of self-generating knowledge ecologies
the global South and North? Let’s pause, and pay that pursue justice and authenticity.
attention to the inordinate diversity of actions Due to the larger relevance of the Mistra
and institutional forms that citizens are invent- Urban Futures experiment, this book has been as-
ing or retooling in order to take control of their sembled so that our often tough learnings can be
trajectories, and in the process, enlarge the pos- deployed by others who share our desire for urban
sibility of more just and convivial futures. futures teeming with life, solidarity and invention.
This volume uses the portal of ‘just cities’
rodger bosch
to exhibit the value and importance of such a
Leave no-one behind: cities need a
change in perspective. It demonstrates that the range of actions and institutions
challenges are indeed daunting, but also know- in order to achieve the goals of the
able and certainly malleable to purposive action. United Nation’s 2030 Agenda.
6 7
INTRODUCTION
Cities have an almost irresistible
pulling power. For many people,
they are the doorway to a better
life. As economic hubs, they promise
a greater chance of finding a job.
They may offer better schooling for
children and healthcare options.
Cities’ food systems seem to
overflow with abundance, with any
manner of tastes and food styles
on every other corner. The glitz of
skyscraper-lined city centres and
the modern finishes in sprawling
shopping malls epitomise all that is
aspirational and progressive in an
ever more globalised world.
Today, over half of the world’s
population lives within these
city-scapes, either enjoying the
abundance of the elite classes, or
trying to reach a more plentiful
life from the margins of lower-
both images: warren smit
income neighbourhoods and the
mushrooming unplanned and
unserviced informal communities
on the edges of these economic
Ulf Ranhagen
Two worlds: Sodra Hamn Canal in
engine rooms. Gothenburg, and Kisumu, Kenya.
8 9
Most cities are growing fast, as
people are drawn there from the countryside,
neighbourhoods within cities. Urbanisation is in-
tensifying and the number of people living in in-
Cities are becoming complex spaces
and as existing city populations generate their
own growth. Three to four decades from now,
adequate housing in many cities is growing, too.
Uneven development creates new social tensions
to arrange and manage, and finding
the world’s urban population is likely to double,
with another 3.5 billion people expected to be
between different communities and authorities,
according to Cullberg.
solutions to transform them into
living in cities around the world1.
According to the United Nations’ The World’s
The growth in globalisation, migration, and
urbanisation is changing societies, and cities
healthier, happier, and fairer places
Cities in 2018 report, ‘an estimated 55.3 per cent
of the world’s population lived in urban settle-
become places where global development chal-
lenges and patterns of conflict express them-
needs new ways of thinking
ments by 2018. By 2030, urban areas are project- selves at a local scale. This means that cities are
ed to house 60 per cent of people globally and becoming complex spaces to arrange and man-
one in every three people will live in cities with age, and finding solutions to transform them create knowledge together? How can we do this scale government, and work with other spheres
at least half a million inhabitants’2. into healthier, happier, and fairer places needs so that we can better design, build, and manage of government. There are the city officials, the
Not all cities are growing in population size, new ways of thinking. cities that are fair, healthy, and accessible to all? bureaucrats and technocrats tasked with han-
though. Some may be stable, but others are stag- Dealing with questions of poverty, social Mistra Urban Futures started with the for- dling the day-to-day operations of keeping a city
nant or declining. What is often more common segregation, unsustainable lifestyles, and urban mation of a network of researchers and practi- ticking over: delivering services like electricity,
across the evolving contemporary city is that, sprawl in cities will also collide with the grow- tioners from different urban disciplines, initially water, sanitation, and waste removal. Communi-
within their boundaries, there are changes in the ing challenges of a changing climate, which has based in four cities on two continents, in both ties themselves are part of the active citizenry
spread of population, the distribution of wealth, the potential to split open existing fault lines. the global South and North. This grew to eight that should hold these officers of the state to
and the ability of local governments to keep Tackling this complexity calls for many different cities on four continents, where they came account. Civil society organisations and research-
apace with the change. The new face of contem- actors, decision makers, disciplines, and sec- together in local collectives at a city level, and ers also have a role to play in helping steer city-
porary cities may also defy the traditional and tors to work hand in hand. The solutions and organised themselves through bottom-up initia- level thinking and planning with evidence-based
largely artificial characterising of a city, where responses need these different parties to work tives through five Local Interaction Platforms research.
they are often reduced to simply being one co-operatively and collaboratively. (LIPs) in Gothenburg and Skåne, Sweden, Greater From its inception, Mistra Urban Futures
typical of so-called ‘developed’ and ‘developing’ Manchester-Sheffield in the United Kingdom, had two clear tasks. It wanted to understand
countries — the ‘global North’ or ‘global South’ Cape Town in South Africa, and Kisumu in Kenya, the character of different cities in the global
— which is how the United Nations has defined How do we work together to with a coordinating centre based in Gothenburg. South and North, and see how multi-stakeholder
cities since the 1950s. create fair, green, accessible cities? Over the course of nearly a decade, the LIPs used scientific research can guide the process of mak-
These processes make urban communities a a variety of processes to work with local city ing cities more fair, green and accessible to all.
focal point for many of today’s development chal- Mistra Urban Futures is an international centre, officials, citizens and civil society organisations Equally importantly, though, it recognised that
lenges. It also makes them hubs for opportunities started in 2010 by the Swedish Foundation for to co-produce knowledge and find solutions to all these different communities have their own
to address contemporary urban settlement issues. Strategic Environmental Research (the Stiftelsen various city-scale development challenges. A key role to play in realising just, fair and accessible
The geography of poverty is changing, writes för Miljöstrategisk Forskning), Mistra. The centre part of this work was to compare their local cities. It understood that no single group or in-
Mikael Cullberg, from Mistra Urban Futures. is geared towards a central, present-day concern: contexts, lessons, and challenges as the pro- stitution held all the knowledge or the solutions
In the future, most of the world’s poor, even how can we create sustainable cities around the gramme unfolded. to the hurdles that keep cities from being the
though they will maintain links with their fami- world, by bringing together researchers, city- Under the banner of the Realising Just Cities shared spaces they should be. The Mistra Urban
lies in the countryside, will no longer live there, level politicians and officials, civil society organi- initiative, Mistra Urban Futures’ work acknowl- Futures teams were concerned with how these
but will be in mostly under-serviced, informal sations, and the residents of cities themselves, to edges that there are many different institutions groups come together to understand the over-
and individuals who can play a part in shaping lapping areas of responsibility, and their shared
our cities and how well these spaces serve all knowledge and experience, so that they could
1 Cullberg, M. 2016. Mistra Urban Futures: A new space for knowledge production. In H. Palmer & H. Walasek (Eds.), Co-production
in Action: Towards Realising Just Cities. Gothenburg: Mistra Urban Futures. their residents. There are the city-level politi- pool their ideas and resources in order to run
cians who largely deal with policy-making and cities more effectively.
2 United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. 2018. The World’s Cities in 2018.
https://www.un.org/en/events/citiesday/assets/pdf/the_worlds_cities_in_2018_data_booklet.pdf overseeing the constitutional mandate of local- ‘The world faces many challenges,’ writes the
10 11
former Mistra Urban Futures’ board chair Emeri-
tus Professor Thomas Rosswall, ‘… challenges
which become opportunities if we base decisions
on the best available knowledge. The knowledge-
gathering process must include dialogues involv-
ing all sectors of society. Political processes are How it’s done:
important, but not sufficient, to address major
issues such as urbanisation and the development Grounded in the ‘local’, Three core approaches through
of fair, green and accessible cities.’ which to co-generate new ideas.
working across the
This book — also called Realising Just Cities —
paints a picture of the shape and nature of our ‘global’ The shape of Urban
the network change
cities. It captures the processes that the Mistra Urban change
Urban Futures researchers used in order to bring Urban
together the knowledge, skill, and experience of Understanding the governance Urban
the many different role players in order to see dynamics, drivers, governance
Mistra Urban Futures’ coordinating constraints, and
how to find better ways to make real and tangi-
centre was based at Gothenburg, potential in different Urban Rethinking power and the
ble the notion of a just city.
Sweden, from which a secretariat urban contexts for knowledge roles of different sectors,
The book draws on the experience of nearly
helped coordinate five Local Inter- promoting sustainability organisations, and com-
a decade of Mistra Urban Futures work, as the
action Platforms (LIPs) in Gothen- transitions. munities in creating and
project wraps up towards the end of 2020. The
burg and Skåne, Sweden, Greater managing more just and
stories feature some of the highlights of a few
Manchester-Sheffield in the United sustainable cities.
projects across the network, looking at the re-
Kingdom, Cape Town in South
search and its outputs, as well as the processes Urban knowledge
Africa, and Kisumu in Kenya, with a
used in order to co-produce knowledge.
smaller additional node in Stock- Learning from and
The stories in this book zoom in on some
holm. Across the platform, the valuing different
of the on-the-ground projects in these cities, to
participating researchers and prac- expertise and practices,
show the nature of the research and the solu-
titioners worked within these cities and organising
tions they have found to city-scale challenges in
and regions, as well as in establish- knowledge appropriately
their individual contexts. They reflect how the
ing project-based collaborations in to realise just cities.
Mistra Urban Futures work contributes towards
Dehradun and Shimla in India, and
supporting cities around the world to realise the
Buenos Aires in Argentina.
objectives of the United Nations Sustainable De-
velopment Goals (SDGs). In particular, the book This allowed for a bottom-up ap-
shows how these different cities are making ef-
In the spotlight:
proach, where the network could
forts, both directly and indirectly, to realise SDG test their novel methodologies three areas of transformation
11, which focuses on making cities inclusive, safe, in research and knowledge co-
resilient, and sustainable. production at a local level, while l
Socio-ecological l
Socio-spatial l
Socio-cultural
Importantly, these stories also capture the sharing and comparing their expe- transformations: transformations: transformations:
processes involved in bringing the different riences across the different global
stakeholders together in order to reach these contexts. F ocusing on the interaction F ocusing on the built Focusing on exploring the
conclusions. between cities and their social environment, and the spatial role of culture in urban
The lessons learned through the Mistra and bio-physical environments, form of cities.
Urban Futures programme apply to virtually all sustainability and justice.
with an eye on issues of urban
cities in this fast-growing globalising, urbanis- ecological sustainability.
ing world.
12 13In practice: co-production
transdisciplinary
research and
sociology
co-production business
political
conception science
Addressing the challenges of creat- of individual
ing fair and just cities, the Mistra projects
Urban Futures approach recog-
architecture
nised that no single actor has all
the answers or knowledge. Central
to the work was creating a process human
of bringing together people with a ecology
range of skills and experience, from
different disciplines within both
research and practice, and from
society and citizens, in order to
project research
co-create knowledge and under- design
standing in the field of sustainable engineering
urban futures. sciences
People from a range of research biology
fields and expertise became part of
the collaboration: from business,
sociology, political science, archi-
tecture, biology, physical resource law publishing
theory, law, human ecology, and finding
engineering sciences.
Co-production is a holistic ap-
proach, starting from the very physical
resource
conception of individual projects, theory
project design and research, to im- implementation
of results
plementation of results, and com-
municating and publishing those
findings. Co-production is about
learning. It is not a single method,
rather a methodological ethos that
communicating
can be implemented in different
findings
ways. It is a means to an end, in or-
der to tackle complex challenges.
andi mkosi
end
production
14 15Chapter 1 What is a healthy, happy, fair city?
The notion of a person having
Keys to the symbolic keys to the city has
its roots in the medieval idea of
the city freedom, where everyone living
within a city can move through
it freely, may own property,
can trade or have some kind
of livelihood, and be safe and
protected. In a modern city,
this should translate into the
experience of all its residents,
where everyone has equal
opportunity to live and thrive,
where there’s a fair distribution
of wealth, and where no one is
held back by obstacles such as
prejudice or lack of privilege.
The work of creating a just city in
today’s world is about redressing
the economic, social, political, or
physical barriers that might come
between people and their ability
to truly hold the keys to a city.
Barry christianson
16 17Previous spread: ‘Defensive’ Keep moving: Hostile architecture
architecture may be a way to and defensive design are used to
passively police public spaces, in make spaces unwelcoming and
order to keep them clean. But their impossible to occupy.
design can also exclude people from
spaces, cementing social or economic
hierarchies in a community.
It’s a foul winter’s afternoon in dow ledge on a high-rise building to keep birds
Cape Town. A storm blown in by a north-west- from roosting or nesting or fouling the building
erly front is pummelling South Africa’s ‘Mother with their droppings.
City’, grinding the early homeward-bound traffic ‘Hostile architecture’ or ‘defensive design’
to a near standstill under an overpass close to like this, in the specific context of Cape Town’s
the harbour. A huddle of men perches beneath foreshore, could be a way to protect pedestrians
the concrete shelter of the flyover, squatting on from the hazards of crossing a dangerous road
a thin seam of paving along the road edge, shel- in a high traffic zone. Or it could be a way of
tering from the elements. passively policing the space to stop unwanted
Through the volleys of rain and the slow- ‘elements’. Either way, this part of the city is
moving traffic, it’s hard to tell if these men are designed to be welcoming to some — mostly
everyday commuters waiting out the storm, or wealthier car owners — and not to others. It’s
if they’re hawkers drifting through a part of a small expression of how the way cities are
the city that forbids curb-side trading. They’re designed and engineered can cement the social
crowded together in a space that is clearly de- and economic divide between the ‘haves’ and
signed and built to keep foot traffic and ‘loiter- the ‘have-nots’.
barry christianson
ers’ away. Cape Town is the second-largest city in
Behind them, the traffic island that sepa- South Africa, a middle-income country where,
rates the city-bound road from the out-bound according to Oxfam estimates3, the top 10 per
car lanes bristles with shards of rock that cent of the population earns seven times more
have been planted into the concrete surface, than the bottom 40 per cent. In the ‘Mother
cemented in place like miniature mountain City’ — so-named because it was the first set-
peaks. Their jagged profile is only ankle-height, tling point for early European migrants and
but they make the surface awkward to walk colonists in the region from the mid-1600s — ex- countries in the world, and yet even here there stand side by side in the Mistra Urban Futures
over, uncomfortable to sit on, and impossible to treme poverty exists alongside incredible opu- is inequality. Oxfam calculates that the combined research because they pull into focus the similar
sleep on. lence. Many parts of the city allow some of its earnings of the top 10 per cent of Swedes is the challenges of inequality in the unique and local-
The ‘No Pedestrians’ traffic sign and the ab- residents to hold the proverbial keys to the city, same as the bottom 40 per cent. scale contexts of these global South and North
sence of pedestrian crossings here sends a clear while in others, residents are excluded from the A 2017 report4 by the City of Gothenburg on city contexts. The same can be said for the other
signal: this intersection is designed for cars, not city’s economy, or geography, or its political and the differences in living conditions in the city cities in the network, which share factors of
for people moving through the city on foot. social platforms. shows that not only do income levels differ social and spatial inequality.
This spiky geography has been put here with These kinds of divides aren’t limited to this dramatically, but factors such as life expectancy, City-scale injustices, linked with urbanisation
clear intention, much the way someone might global South city. trust of other people, and young people’s quali- and industrialisation, run deep into the early
bolt metal spikes or string wire along the win- Sweden has long been one of the most equal fication for upper secondary school, also differ 19th Century, when social critics like the German
greatly between different parts of the city. philosopher, social scientist and journalist Frie-
These cities — Cape Town, and Gothenburg — drich Engels first documented the appalling liv-
3 Development Finance International and Oxfam. 2017. The Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index. https://oxfamilibrary.
openrepository.com/bitstream/handle/10546/620316/rr-commitment-reduce-inequality-index-170717-en.pdf;jsessionid=BBF503EB321E46
8BEF5423B0C5F2101B?sequence=31 4 City of Gothenburg. 2017. Equality Report 2017, Differences in Life Conditions in Gothenburg. Gothenburg: City of Gothenburg.
18 19which the notion of territorial and spatial jus- Cape Town is still ‘stubbornly untransformed
tice then emerged. despite 25 years of democratic rule’, argues Com-
Territorial justice refers to the spatial and municare’s Anthea Houston. Scars blister the
geographical dimensions of justice, while the landscape of a city regarded as one of the most
idea of spatial justice concerns itself specifically beautiful in the world, she writes, still showing
with whether resources are spread and shared evidence of forced removals, segregation along
fairly and equitably, and what opportunities peo- racial lines, and land dispossession.
ple have to use these resources. The article highlights how these privileged
Having the right to the city also means hav- sporting facilities are public land, something
ing the right to participate in decision-making, that should be used for the common good, but
Zacharia Mashele / Ndifuna Ukwazi
and the right to make something one’s own, be it the city’s decisions on how to use this land
physical access to a space, or the ability to occupy continue to feed privilege and protect minority
and use urban spaces, according to French philos- interests. This land should rather be used to ad-
opher and sociologist Henri Lefebvre. This implies dress the city’s housing challenges, where about
that the social value of urban space is given prior- 650 000 households live in inadequate housing
ity over its economic and financial value. conditions, she argues.
A few days after that winter storm drove Like many cities in the world, Cape Town
the men to seek shelter under the Cape Town still has plenty of vacant and under-used land
foreshore flyover, local civil society organisa- which could be better used to address housing
tion Communicare, a social housing initiative in shortages and spatial inequality. In Cape Town’s
Cape Town, ran an opinion piece in the online existing built-up environment, there are about
newspaper Daily Maverick, questioning the city’s 570 hectares of land that are suitable for hous-
In an unequal city like Cape Town, ing conditions of the working class in Manches- decision to keep supporting rarified spaces like ing. Some 41 per cent of this is zoned as public
golf courses become fiercely ter in his book The Condition of the Working Class
contested political spaces. Reclaim
golf courses and bowling greens, when there is open space, a quarter of it is regarded as under-
in England, write Mistra Urban Futures research- such a huge backlog in affordable housing for utilised, and 20 per cent is vacant land. Most of
the City activists contest the use of
public land for elite sports activities ers Dr Rike Sitas and Dr Warren Smit. the city’s poor5. this land — some 56 per cent — is owned by local
when it could be used for affordable The British philosopher and economist How is it that large tracts of land, like golf government.
housing. John Stuart Mill argued that social justice is courses, continue to be set aside for the leisure If it is time to revisit the way that municipal-
‘defined as being about a fair and just relation- needs of the city’s wealthy, particularly as mem- ities like Cape Town manage areas suitable for
ship between individuals and society more bership to golf clubs and bowling greens drops, housing, like contentious green sporting spaces,
broadly’. Meanwhile, distributive justice, he rather than converting these spaces to housing and bring their leasing decisions in line with
wrote, relates to ‘a specific aspect of social jus- for those living in poor conditions, the article their densification policies and constitutional
tice — what is distributed, between whom is it asks. mandates to meet housing backlogs, how should
distributed, and what is the ideal distribution?’
Society should treat all equally well, said Mill
succinctly. 5 Houston, A. 2019. Cape Town, let me in: Time to build houses on golf courses and other open spaces. Daily Maverick, 30 July.
Cities became the epicentre for the strug- https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-07-30-cape-town-let-me-in-time-to-build-houses-on-golf-courses-and-other-open-
gle against social injustice in the 1960s, from spaces/
20 21While some housing
this be done? This is precisely the kind of local- sites on the edge of the city. It recommends us-
development (in Cape
level conundrum that the Mistra Urban Futures
thinking and co-production processes tried to
ing ‘well-located land strategically for the social
good’. While some housing development should
Town) should be
address. Decisions about who should have access
to this kind of public land within a city need to
be commercial in nature, projects ought to focus
on the needs of low-income and middle-income
commercial in nature,
include all the stakeholders who have an inter-
est in the space. This process should not just
communities, allowing for ownership and rental
opportunities for those who can’t get into the
projects ought to focus on
include the municipal office handling sporting
facilities. Neither should it be limited to mem-
private market in areas of ‘high opportunity and
amenity’.
the needs of low-income
bers of the private clubs that have enjoyed privi-
leged access to these sporting facilities and have
Decisions about how land should be sold,
developed, or held, should not be made on an ad
and middle-income
special access to the authorities who oversee
these spaces.
hoc basis, but must ‘balance development goals,
with priority for social and ecological value crea-
communities, allowing
A fair negotiation should also include people
from civil society, such as non-governmental
tion’. One of the practical outcomes of the Living
Cape Framework, according to the Mistra Urban
for ownership and rental
organisations, community associations, social
movements, and trade unions. It should work
Futures Cape Town platform, is a pilot project to
develop housing and facilities on under-utilised
opportunities for those
with local government such as mayors, council-
lors, elected politicians, and officials. It should
public facility sites.
This kind of framework may help better
who can’t get into the
draw in those from the private sector, such as
chambers of commerce, business improvement
inform land use and lease decisions around
contentious spaces like golf courses and bowling
private market in areas
district initiatives, large corporations, property
owners, and organisations representing informal
greens within this intensely unequal city.
Mistra Urban Futures’ Realising Just Cities
of ‘high opportunity and
businesses. And there is also a role for research-
ers and academics to play in this delicate and
initiatives show, though, that in the process of
working with cities in this way, the outcome,
amenity’.
often politically sensitive decision-making. like the Living Cape Framework, isn’t the only
Mistra Urban Futures Cape Town platform important thing. The process of reaching that
has worked extensively with the municipal outcome is equally important in the lofty objec-
and provincial governments to design a policy tive of creating a happier, healthier, more equi-
framework for human settlements development, table city. Who is allowed to sit at the table and
resulting in the Living Cape Framework (see have their voices heard? Whose needs are repre-
Chapter 5 Govern). sented in the outcome? What efforts are made
The framework brings a new focus to deci- to redress the power imbalances between differ-
sion making and planning for Cape Town: it calls ent parties in the negotiation?
for housing to be developed on vacant and un- Every effort must be made to tackle the
der-used land within the urban edge by putting historical legacies of unequal cities that have
up housing in already developed areas, as op- denied the keys of the city to so many of those
posed to building on undeveloped ‘greenfield’ living within them.
22 23Mistra urban Sheffield Gothenburg
futures local United Kingdom Sweden
interaction Fourth largest city by Population: 556,640
platforms population. Area: 447.76 km2
Population: 575,400 Average population density:
Footprint: 1,550 km2 1 242.8 people per km2
Average population density:
Malmö BUILT-UP AREA AS PERCENTAGE
371 people per km2 Sweden OF TOTAL AREA: 29.52%
greater
Development priorities:
Manchester Third largest city. Development priorities:
Sheffield City Council is Population: 334,000 Reducing inequality.
responsible for delivering United Kingdom Area: 157 km2 Gothenburg has a well- Shimla
services to its citizens,
Population: 2.78 million
Average population density: developed welfare system India
which sit within four 2,130 people per km2 and a high standard of
portfolios: people; Area: 1,277 km2
living, but relative poverty, Population: 169,578
place; resources; and Average population density: Percentage of constructed rather than absolute Area: 35.34 km2
policy, performance and 2,204 people per km2 in the space of total area: 41% poverty, poses a challenge.
Greater Manchester region, Average population
communications. Development priorities: Income inequality and
4,716 per km2 in the City of density: 4,798 people per
Equality, gender equality, relative poverty have
Manchester km2
anti-discrimination, the increased between different
environment, and public groups and areas in the
Development priorities: The BUILT-UP AREA AS PERCENTAGE
participation. city, reinforcing existing
Greater Manchester Strategy OF TOTAL AREA: Limited data,
segregation. but municipal estimates
focuses on eight themes
of health, well-being, work are that 75% is built-up, and
and jobs, housing, transport, 25% is green belt or forests
skills, training and economic
growth. Development priorities:
Buenos Aires Five priorities include
transport, urban solid
Argentina
waste, safe and green
Kisumu spaces, city planning, and
Population: 3,059,122
Area: 203 km2 Kenya health and wellbeing.
Average population density:
14,994 people per km2 Cape Town Third largest city Development priorities:
Percentage of constructed Population: 404,160 Land management,
space of total area: South Africa planning and use, housing,
Area: 289.9 km2
91.1% built-up; Average population density: improvement of road
8.9% green and open public Second-largest Development priorities: 1,394 people per km2 network and transportation
spaces economic centre and Overcoming the city’s Urban land use: system, provision of
second most populous apartheid legacy of spatial Informal settlements basic services; water and
Development priorities: city. and socio-economic 38.61%; tenement housing sewerage, health and
Upgrade slum areas to inequality through basic 2.46%; other residential electricity connections,
achievement of inclusive, Population: 4,014,765 service delivery and transit- 11.68%; government 4.25%; and environmental
safe, resilient, and Area: 2 456 km2 oriented development. industrial 12.6%; commercial management. Solid waste
sustainable city and human Average population density: Challenges include 2.15%; green space 0.9%; management is also a
settlements within it. 1 637 people per km2 resource constraints, the other 27.35% growing concern.
BUILT-UP AREA AS PERCENTAGE environment, and climate
OF TOTAL AREA: 40.3% change.
24 25Chapter 2 It is reasonable for anyone to
hope for a solid, well-built home,
Space and with running water, sturdy
plumbing and a flushing toilet.
It’s fair to want to live in a
Place neighbourhood close to where
someone can find suitable work
or some kind of livelihood.
People want to feel safe in their
neighbourhood, and to be close
to shops, schools, libraries, and
businesses. The reality is that
many cities don’t allow this
kind of access for everyone. In
many cities, the stark contrast
between their elite suburbs and
their ghettos is where the idea of
spatial injustice is most visible.
Once the concrete-and-brick part
of an urban landscape is built —
the homes, the street blocks, the
business clusters, the transport
routes, and even the bylaws
that govern them — it locks
neighbourhoods into a space and
place that may not allow fair
access to the city.
Housing and mobility are
important windows into how we
think about creating spatially just
barry christianson
cities.
26 27barry christianson
Left: Adiel Bassier’s family moved
to Kensington, Cape Town, in 1977,
They call it Die Gat. The Hole. To the
after the apartheid state declared residents of the blue-collar neighbourhood of
District Six in the city centre ‘Whites Factreton, this once industrial hub on the out-
only’. Today, the 60 year old lives in skirts of Cape Town is a ghetto. Row upon row
a wooden ‘Wendy house’ in a back of ageing houses, mostly built by the council
yard, without running water or toilet back in the 1960s, run a few blocks deep until
facilities.
they hit a dead end on the edge of a piece of
open, unused state land that’s overgrown with
Above: Formal and informal houses
bush and strewn with uncollected rubbish.
stand side by side in low-income
Left: A man drinks from a neighbourhoods like Factreton, Cape ‘There,’ says Adiel Bassier, pointing to the
communal water tap in an informal Town. Many people living in council cluttered, sandy yards, and commenting on how
neighbourhood in Die Gat, a houses here earn extra income by much they differ from the neatly curated lawns
community which locals call a renting out backyard shacks or of Kensington, the middle-class neighbourhood a
‘ghetto’. ‘Wendy houses’ to tenants. kilometre or so away. ‘Now you start seeing the
difference.’
Previous spread: A path snakes
Just about every bricks-and-mortar council
across the veld between two
disparate worlds in Cape Town:
house here has informal homes crammed into
the sprawling luxury of the Canal whatever yard space people can find: pre-fabri-
Walk shopping complex (on the cated wooden Wendy houses, or one-bedroom
right, across the N1 freeway), and houses hammered together from corrugated zinc
Factreton, a patchwork of formal sheets and plywood boards. They press up against
and informal housing, with high
the concrete perimeter walls, the metal sheets
joblessness, gangsterism, and
substance misuse.
often weeping rusty stains after years of wear.
28 29Side-by-side: Many neighbourhoods
in Cape Town have formal and
informal approaches to housing
juxtaposed in close proximity.
‘See those Wendy houses at the front? We’re not Factreton. Like many poorer neighbourhoods in
just talking about “back-yarders” here. There are Cape Town, where the municipality has installed
side-yarders, and front yarders.’ water shut-off devices to manage people’s daily
His voice trails off. water use, if his family’s 350 litres of allocated
His companion, Boeta (‘Brother’) Abdul Ohls- water gets used up early in the day and the de-
son, chatters from the back seat of the car. vice cuts off their water supply for the following
‘See, the people standing on the corner 24-hour cycle, he has to walk a distance to col-
there?’ lect water from the communal standpipe. He’s
He’s drawing attention to the number of also a member of the Factreton mosque, so he
people hanging around on street corners, mid- regularly walks into the area to pray. But Boeta
morning, a testimony to the high levels of job- Adiel and Boeta Ohlsson both say they wouldn’t
lessness in the neighbourhood. But the conversa- let their kids walk to school alone in either
barry christianson
tion swings quickly towards the turf war that’s neighbourhood. It’s just not safe.
flared up again between the two local gang The view from the top of the nearby Century
factions operating in the area. The Americans are City train station gives a better vantage of the
more ‘respectable’, as far as gangs go, he says, surrounds. To the north-west, the view is of the
and mostly control the Kensington neighbour- sprawling expanse of the polished Canal Walk
hood. Here in Factreton, it’s the Wonder Boys. shopping mall, tucked within easy reach of the N1
It’s poorer here, so the gang is poorer. There’s highway and just 15 minutes’ drive from the heart
more infighting. The turf is smaller, and the war of Cape Town. To the south, Factreton, and its Factreton — ‘Factory Town’ — gets its name house, across the yard, and into the main house
is mostly over drugs and the poached perlemoen slightly more prim neighbour, Kensington. from the bustling industrial area it once was, a few meters away, which powers his electri-
(abalone) trade. The disparity between these two views is a packed mostly with clothing factories until cal appliances and lights. He collects water in
‘Ja, I don’t feel comfortable walking here, sharp reminder that Cape Town is one of the about the 1960s. The state rezoned part of the containers from the main house. He has to use
there have been a lot of shootings in the area.’ most unequal cities in the world. area for housing in the 1940s, and the working a bucket as a toilet, and throws the waste down
Boeta Adiel makes a passing reference to Canal Walk is one of the glitziest shopping class suburb grew out of it. This later became one of the main house’s outdoor drains.
being caught in crossfire recently, and tells how complexes in the country. But just across the one of the ‘dumping grounds’ for people of The 60-year-old man is a screen printer by
he negotiated with the gangsters as he tried to railway line lies a neighbourhood where gang colour under the South African apartheid state’s trade. He grew up in District Six before the
cross the street during the scuffle. Don’t worry wars play out in firefights in the streets. It’s an forced removals programme and Group Areas apartheid state declared this city-centre neigh-
about me, he’d said to them, it’s the children area where many people still have to empty Act. For decades, only ‘Coloured’ people were bourhood a ‘Whites only’ enclave and began
you need to worry about. They’re the ones who their toilet waste down storm water drains legally allowed to live here. Most of the homes forcibly removing all people of colour from
might get hurt. because they don’t have flushing toilets in their are council-owned, and falling into disrepair, the area in 1968. Boeta Adiel’s family moved to
Boeta Adiel doesn’t live in Factreton, but makeshift backyard homes. And unemployment with cash-strapped families often building illegal Kensington when he was in his late teens in 1977,
he’s still very much part of this community. rates are sky-high. Where many parents’ greatest dwellings in their front and back yards, which after his parents bought a small property with
His life straddles two neighbouring suburbs: he wish is simply that their children can have more they rent out as a way to boost their income. two homes on the single plot. But Boeta Adiel’s
lives in a Wendy house on his family’s property to aspire to than anaesthetising themselves Boeta Adiel’s wooden Wendy house doesn’t career in screen printing came to an early end
in Kensington, but sometimes has to walk a against hopelessness with alcohol or some other have running water, a flushing toilet, or electric- when a car accident and the onset of rheuma-
block or two to collect water from a communal cheap drug, or be free from the temptation of ity, and he shares the dwelling with four others. toid arthritis a few years later meant he could
standpipe near a cluster of informal homes in gang life. An electrical cable runs through a window in his no longer work in the industry.
30 31Transport hubs connect the city:
a story from Gothenburg
Borås Central Station is about an a part of the Mistra Urban Futures travel. The goal was to produce an
hour’s train trip east of Gothen- knowledge process, the Urban implementable and practical plan
burg, Sweden, and an important Station Communities initiative. to achieve this.
junction on a spider web of railway Realising that these areas are likely
But the process of how this plan
tracks that were first laid down to become ever more dense, the
was drawn up is as important as
in the 1870s. This is a world apart municipalities see the need to plan
the plan itself. Through the Urban
from the unkept dirt road that for integrated, connected, human-
Station Communities knowledge
leads from Boeta Adiel’s Kensington friendly neighbourhoods in the
process, researchers were able to
community to his nearest train vicinity of these stations.
work with the municipality and
station at Century City in Cape
How can city administrations cre- other important stakeholders to
Town, South Africa, where the road
ate transport hubs that are more widen theoretical and conceptual
is so dented with potholes that a
appealing and accessible, and that thinking, and also draw in trans-
car can only pick its way over it at
allow cities and their residents disciplinary collaborations from
crawling speed.
to become more interconnected people in different organisations
Ulf Ranhagen
The Borås station looks like the within the urban landscape? How and professions concerned with
ideal modern urban connection. should they rework their central urban planning and mobility. This
The old station’s historic red brick stations to be less noisy, more visu- process included the Borås munici-
building is neat and cared for. Its ally beautiful and welcoming, and pality doing an in-depth corridors
roof is the colour of weather-green- easier to reach for foot traffic and analysis, and a research project
ed copper. Twin lines of young people commuting by bicycle and supported by the Swedish Energy
trees give the promise of decades local buses? Can creating places Agency.
the vicinity of important station expressed in the comprehensive Creative flow: an ideas development
of shady canopy for future com- and nodes that encourage non- group uses a ‘design dialogue’
‘It is important to have integrated hubs call for transport-friendly plan for Borås which will help
muters moving in and out of the motorised transport and discour- approach to come up with innovative
urban and transportation planning, social planning, sustainable eco- realise this. Within three to five
station. The cobbled pavings are age cars help to lower travellers’ solutions for climate smart and
and also to address social, econom- nomic development and creating years the first phases of the vision
swept and litter-free. carbon footprint? attractive transportation nodes in
ic and ecological goals in a cocrea- attractive regions, explains the will be visible on the ground,’ says Gothernburg.
But even this manicured historic Borås municipality teamed up tive working process, like we did Mistra Urban Futures team in Ranhagen.
site, in the heart of a wealthy with other partner organisations in Borås,’ says architect and urban Gothenburg. The aim is to cre-
Borås will soon begin rolling out
society, is the focus of similar in 2014, through Mistra Urban planner, Professor Emeritus Ulf Ra- ate ‘efficient chains for everyday
its plan to create more attractive
questions about the importance Futures Urban Station Communi- nhagen with Chalmers University travel, reduce the number of park-
corridors between the station and
of mobility hubs in creating cities ties knowledge process, to embark of Technology in Gothenburg. He ing spaces, and eventually create
surrounds, so that they ‘feel bigger
that are connected and accessible on a five-year process of examining and regional planner Anna Gustafs- completely fossil-free traffic’.
and more uniform’, making travel
for everyone. its central station. They wanted to son both worked as process leaders
‘Urban planning is a long chain points more beautiful, with lower
see how this could be part of a cor- on the Urban Station Communities
The Borås municipality is one of from idea to implementation, but noise pollution, and with streets
ridor system that is inviting to trav- project.
12 city administrations in Swe- the clear visions for sustainable and walking routes made just for
ellers, allows access to the wider
den that are grappling with these The societies and communities urban development and mobil- pedestrians and cyclists.
city, and cuts back on fossil fuel
questions in their local context as that these municipalities foster in ity is now decided politically and
32 33retha ferguson
retha ferguson
Voortrekker Road is one of the Boeta Adiel has lived in Kensington ever
oldest roads in Cape Town, and since. For the past almost two decades he has
is an important transport route
only been able to afford to rent rooms in back-
linking the inner city with Belville.
Local government has earmarked yard Wendy houses. Today, he’s back on the
a stretch of this road as a corridor family property in the back-yard dwelling, while
for development that it hopes will his brothers’ families now live in the two main
Brakes and barbers: Voortrekker
Road has a wide variety of businesses
make the area more inclusive and houses. This frustrating history of his own hous-
integrated through social and spatial ing needs might explain why he’s become active
and services. Here a woman walks
transformation.
in front of burning rubble outside a in community-led efforts to raise the profile of
vacated shop. an issue that’s central to his community: the
shortage of affordable housing.
His home is set a few blocks back from Voor-
trekker Road, one of the oldest thoroughfares
linking Cape Town to the rest of the country.
The road gets its name from a 1938 re-enactment
34 35of the white settler migration that headed home or no sanitation at all; 22 000 households development and improved mobility. This means What is ‘spatial justice’?
off into the hinterland of the country in 1835, had to use their own refuse dump or had no creating a densified city, where more people live
known as the ‘Great Trek’. A railway line into refuse disposal; and nearly 36 000 households together on a smaller residential footprint, but Does someone like Boeta Adiel have the keys to
the interior was built alongside this road in the didn’t have basic electricity. with planning that’s conducive to their well-be- the city of Cape Town?
1860s. Nearly a century later, the building of the Today, 90 per cent of Cape Town is still locked ing. It is also about better quality public trans- In principle, he does. The laws of the country
N1 freeway in the 1950s formalised the area as a into this divide through spatial planning and so- port linking communities to the rest of the city. now grant everyone equal standing and rights,
transport corridor running from the city centre cial engineering, writes researcher Mercy Brown- If this is done well, it should restructure the city regardless of the colour of their skin. But does
through to what are now the newer suburbs Luthango7 from the African Centre for Cities to be more spatially and socially fair. this mean everyone has an equal chance to
and industrial hubs that have mushroomed (ACC) at the University of Cape Town (UCT). The African Centre for Cities has been track- move through the city, to have fair and equitable
around the city since then. Understanding this inequality in the spatial ing the VRCIZ initiative, and working in Kensing- access to its amenities, its governance, and its
Today, this asphalt artery has a gritty indus- arrangement of Cape Town has been central to ton and Factreton on the western edge of the economy?
trial feel. It is edged on one side by the sprawl- the Mistra Urban Futures work, both here and in VRCIZ, to understand the everyday experience of Does someone like Boeta Adiel enjoy the
ing Maitland Cemetery; on the other, it is dotted other cities falling in the scope of their studies. the people living here. Will the economic and so- three dimensions of a just city, as defined by
with second-hand car dealerships and small Spatial inequality continues to limit the cial benefits of the VRCIZ reach deeper into the political theorist and scholar Professor Susan
businesses. integration of people of different ethnicities and community, beyond just a few blocks on either Fainstein from the Harvard Graduate School of
This road has become part of the Voortrekker social classes here. Poor families from historical- side of Voortrekker Road? Design: equity, diversity, and democracy?
Road Corridor Integration Zone (VRCIZ), an ly marginalised communities, like the one Boeta Boeta Adiel has been working with the ACC Equity refers to the distribution of material
initiative by Cape Town’s municipality to develop Adiel grew up in, are on the receiving end of the researchers to do this work, as part of a team and non-material benefits that come from public
the area in the hope of making it more inclusive worst of this spatial fragmentation. People living that did door-to-door interviews in the neigh- policy in ways that do not favour those who are
and integrated through social and spatial trans- in Kensington and Factreton aren’t only hit in bourhood in 2016. He is getting involved with already better off, write ACC researchers and
formation. terms of being excluded from the city’s main- the ongoing awareness-raising of the wider Mistra Urban Futures team members Dr Rike Si-
Cape Town is still bedevilled by its colonial stream economy, says Brown-Luthango, but also needs of his community. tas and Dr Warren Smit. This comes from efforts
and apartheid history, which forced communi- bear the cost of social exclusion, too. Affordable housing is central to this work, he to have more inclusive housing and regulations
ties of colour into neighbourhoods on the fringe The VRCIZ initiative is an attempt by the says, not just because everyone should have the that slow gentrification, and through providing
of the city and the economy, where services to Cape Town municipality to address this inequal- dignity of living in a safe, warm, well-serviced affordable public transport8.
many households remains below-par and typical ity, expressed through the structural inequali- home, but because a city should include all of A diverse city-space is the end result of proc-
of much of the service delivery backlog across ties that linger long after the laws changed, to its residents in its day-to-day functioning. Where esses that allow for the integration of races and
lower-income communities. include all South Africans in the democratic someone lives, and how well that community classes within the physical space. This is reached
According to census data6, by 2015 about project. The idea of the VRCIZ is to create a more is run, determines whether a person can find through zoning schemes, for instance, that
30 000 households across the city didn’t have ‘inclusive, integrated and vibrant’ city. Central to work, or run a business, explore their spiritual permit a range of uses, allowing access to public
running water within 200m of their yard; 74 this, as laid out in the city’s Spatial Development and cultural pursuits, be safe, and be part of the spaces. It calls for targeted assistance to groups
800 households only had a bucket toilet in their Framework, is to find better ways to drive urban governing of their community. historically discriminated against when it comes
to housing, education, and employment.
6 City of Cape Town. 2014. City of Cape Town Built Environment Performance Plan (BEPP) 2014/15. Cape Town: City of Cape Town. 8 Palmer, H. & Walasek, H. (Eds.). 2016. Co-production in Action: Towards Realising Just Cities. Gothenburg: Mistra Urban
7 Brown-Luthango, M. 2018. The Prospect for Socio-Spatial Transformation in the Voortrekker Road Corridor Integration Zone. Cape Futures.
Town: African Centre for Cities.
36 37You can also read
