Contested Urban Futures: Report on a Global Gathering in Johannesburg, 2000.

This article presents information on the Urban Futures events held in Johannesburg, South Africa in July 2000 which demonstrated that contest rages over different visions and means of moving into those futures. Urban Futures was initiated by the University of the Witwatersrand, an institution with roots in the early and conflictual history of the gold-mining town which spawned the metropolitan area of Johannesburg. Financial support came from the Ford Foundation, the European Union, USAID, the French government and others while practical support came from many different organizations. The academic conference started on the 10th of July with three successive plenaries on African perspectives, global perspectives and urban governance. In the evening, performance of music, dance and video took place that demonstrated the continued potential of the inner city of Johannesburg. Then the next day, events continued in Newtown mostly in the Electric Workshop. Random discussions were held with participants in the academic events that showed a range of responses to the intrusion of conflict over Johannesburg's Igoli 2002 municipal restructuring plan. Wednesday allowed several hundred people to take conference tour. Lastly, Thursday and Friday mornings were filled with simultaneous events located at the university to symbolize these two days as the most academic in the week. There were scholarly sessions with issues such as gender, race and environmental security and discussions between decision-makers and scholars on policy themes like bringing universities and their cities into better working relationships, and on urban safety and security.