Overview
- 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
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About this book
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.
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Keywords
- Development studies
- UN Urban Sustainable Development Goal
- Urban growth
- Contested space
- Politics of Space
- Conflict of rationalities
- Ethnography
- State Planning
- Urban planning
- Global South
- African cities
- Informal settlements
- Southern planning theory
- Langa
- Planning theory
- Cities
- city planning
- housing policy
- Cape Town
- landscape/regional and urban planning
Table of contents (8 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Authors and Affiliations
About the authors
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.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Urban Planning in the Global South
Book Subtitle: Conflicting Rationalities in Contested Urban Space
Authors: Richard de Satgé, Vanessa Watson
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69496-2
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Political Science and International Studies, Political Science and International Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-69495-5Published: 20 March 2018
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-09890-2Published: 15 January 2019
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-69496-2Published: 08 March 2018
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XV, 255
Topics: Development Studies, Public Policy, Urban Studies/Sociology, African Politics, Landscape/Regional and Urban Planning, Ethnography