Search

Urban development in contemporary South Africa generates opportunities for the reproduction of inequality, as well as chances to increase the social justice of the urban landscape. This article juxtaposes two current developments in greater Johannesburg to illustrate the contrast between 'insurgent' bottom-up planning approaches and top-down 'control' policies characteristic of development in Africa today. While top-down megaprojects often promoted by governments can marginally reduce poverty, they fail to address the complex networks of human interaction necessary for underprivileged populations to negotiate their everyday lives. The narrative of control and insurgency explored in Johannesburg therefore highlights the diversity of approaches the underprivileged employ to ensure claims to space and opportunity. It also emphasises the need for innovative approaches attuned to this urban majority rather than 'grand visions' that effectively exclude them from the processes of city-making. The article concludes with analysis of several current initiatives that attempt to address this urban majority from the top and the bottom, reinforcing the need to incorporate insurgent tactics in redressing inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an alternative to 'best practice', a City–University partnership in Cape Town has been influencing the development trajectory of the city through the co-production of knowledge by practitioners and academics. The partnership allows for sharing and a deepening of substantive knowledge about Cape Town and also acquisition of tactical knowledge about the regulatory decision-making process in the city. The new networks of knowledge generation transcend institutional boundaries. The impacts of the programme are not confined to the outcomes generated; value also derives from the varied modes and processes of the co-production of useful knowledge about the city. Co-produced interventions in cities are an alternative inspiration to off-the-shelf or best practice 'solutions' that are uncritically replicated between cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing significance of cities in the global system and the urbanisation of poverty underpin the call to reassess the role of local government in fostering redistributive justice. The paper shows how in post- colonial contexts the institutional frameworks of city government are poorly adapted to roll out effective programmes that will improve the lives of the urban poor. Using Johannesburg's process of institutional reform, known locally as iGoli 2002, the paper reflects on the cit/s efforts to mainstream a developmental agenda. An overview of poverty profiles in Johannesburg provides the platform for assessing the developmental challenges facing iGoli 2002's architects. Johannesburg's efforts to achieve financial sustainability, reconfigure the institutional arrangements of service delivery, establish a better organisational interface between political and administrative functions, rework the political lines of accountabilily and run an integrated participatory process are identified as useful (if not wholly successful) measures necessary to address the fundamental problem of designing a developmental local state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]