A moment

By now the readers of this blog know that I am an impenitent urbanist. I have a friend who has known me since I was 17 (alas a loooong time ago) who refuses to believe that my African escapades provide me with joyous adventure instead of filling me with utter terror. This is the majority middle class South African view I am afraid; what is north of the Limpopo is best to be avoided unless it involves a khaki clad guide and/or a houseboat filled with Zambezi (the beer, not the shark.... on the river, not in it). Depending on what time of the day it is, how tired and I am and the quality of the hotel coffee (and content of the wine list), I am bound to find messiness interesting, chaos innovative and grubbiness....well actually no...grubby stays grubby....at a push maybe grungy if I am listening to Pearl Jam on my iPod.

At a recent workshop on case research one of my AAPS colleagues reflected on a teaching initiative with students where they were tasked with interviewing informal waste collectors. Students were interviewed on DVD reflecting on their initial prejudice and representing their insights into the conditions that cause some to collect, sorts and sell waste. Many waste collectors sleep on the streets. The research was done in Johannesburg. When probed on how exactly this prepares students for finding practical solutions my gut response was duh! My more eloquent friend drew attention to the fact that solutions are best informed by an engagement with the invisible, the marginal... Yes. I think however, that something else happened as part of this exercise; there was a sensibility shift for some of these students. This is not just something that will influence future dealings with the informal sector; it informs a worldview that permeates how we look at the world and how we choose to experience it. Funny how it escapes 20+ years of friendship.