It is 9pm in Johannesburg as I reflect on two weeks of travel, discussions, interrogations and intellectual rigour. (Soundtrack: Schumann) The latter is not necessarily of my own making; allow me to explain...
My job is to coordinate a project on educating urban planners in Africa with the Association of African Planning Schools. (Soundtrack now: could be Keita, Toure or Kidjo or but my urban sensibilities lead me to the South African duo Goldfish) The 3-year project, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, aims to revisit and interrogate planning education given the urban challenges facing the continent. Ambitious, yes; bold, yes; invigorating, most definitely; I would venture that this is the best job in the world since I'll be traveling across this vast and diverse continent talking about 2 of my passions: planning and cities.
Strange then that my travels should start in Bellagio, Italy.
I was invited by the DPU at University College London to attend a meeting on the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) ... an institution that does not yet exist... MIT and DPU have been invited to hammer out curricula guidelines at the Rockefeller Centre in Bellagio last week. I was asked to participate and share the AAPS experience. A number of issues struck me as common to both the IIHS and AAPS objectives: the need to train planners in a context of multiple modernities, changing sensibilities and the need for reflexive practitioners. From the outside in....clearly a new agenda for planning resonates across many quarters of the Global South.
So I started my African visits in my comfort zone with South African planning schools. I taught at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban for 8 years, these are my colleagues and peers. Thus far I have visited the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, the University of the North-West in Potchefstroom and the University of Pretoria. Colleagues and students are excited, curious to see where this will lead us, and in the case of the latter, concerned about sustainability, inclusivity, transparency and all the other qualities so often spelt with a 'y' at the end. 'Why?' was a question often asked as I outlined ways in which we can prepare for a conference in 201o intended to assist us in addressing curricula issues. Some interesting questions have been: why the urban bias? why only urban planners? why Africa? The many 'why's' are indicative of a need to engage, to question and to revitalise. The overarching sense is that rising to the challenge of uneven urbanisation in the South, and in this case Africa, needs to emerge in the South...in Africa.
From the inside out...
Nowadays, the city is going through processes as much conflictive as important. It´s the cosmetic surgery will let it display certain elegant profiles, but its treatment does not contemplate very important problems. The city has already got a notice of city under construction. And it has been undergoing one of the deepest transformations it has ever experienced. Well, now considering the above mentioned references and in front of such a volume of works, so much large as late, the following questions are possible to be asked.
ReplyDeleteThis disagreement between theory and practice sets up a legal vacuum that reaches its peak in the consolidation of a “parallel code”. As a normal abnormality, the urban legislation has not yet ruled an important set of new practices in the city. These are practices already incorporated into the urban life but are not contemplated by the present legislation in force.
From Buenos Aires (Argentina), I send to you my congratulations to him by this space of reflection.
Regards, Guillermo Tella
Thanks for these comments Guillermo. I suspect one of the key challenges of implementing curricula reform would be to consider the interface between the University classroom and the institutional environment within which planners work. Legislative reform in planning is overdue in many African countries.
ReplyDeleteHi Nancy, This is a fantastic blog. I really hope you will publish your many findings and discoveries as you travel and learn from all the different cultures and cities. I am curious about the commonalities and differences in the different cultures as they relate to enviromental conservation. Is this aspect included in your mandate?
ReplyDeleteRegards,
Yvette
Hi Yvette
ReplyDeletemost certainly. We are particularly interested in the impact of global warming on African cities and what this may imply for the training of planners. Feel free to comment and share from your own travels.
N