Domestic workers in South Africa make up a significant portion of the urban labour force. Behind closed doors sub-standard employment conditions can easily go unchecked. Leslie Vryenhoek and photographer Jonathan Torgovnik reveal tales from domestic workers which highlight the advances and challenges of bringing organisation to this traditionally hidden form of urban economic activity.
Looking at the recent transformation of Williamsburg in New-York, Julia Borowicz questions the perceived authenticity of trendy post-industrial neighbourhoods. She invites us to look beyond the aesthetic, and understands what makes attractive spaces.
Next Tokyo 2045 is a new plan for Tokyo Bay to relieve the pressure on the Japanese capital. But in reality, the city has been gradually encroaching on the Bay for centuries.
Over the next few weeks, The Global Urbanist, in collaboration with WIEGO will publish six photo essays that take us inside the daily lives of women working in the informal economy.
Carlin Carr introduces members of the Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA) in Ahmedabad. The organisation has been supporting informal workers to improve their working conditions.
Is public consultation a thing of the past? Alyssa Campbell takes us inside the City Innovation Game, a planning experiment in Buiksloterham, Amsterdam, that lets stakeholders create development scenarios interactively and in real time.
By describing the important role of Shebeens in the informal settlements of Cape Town, Bronwyn Kotzen challenges our binary conception of the formal and informal city.
Two years after the introduction of Permitted Development Rights, Zoe Green argues that the policy is threatening the local creative economy in UK cities by pricing out small and medium sized enterprises.
Tom Archer argues that eliminating homelessness by 2030, a key recommendation of the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing, requires committed governments and an active civil society.
In discussing the scope and meaning of historic preservation, Gabrielle M. Peterson reminds us of how it can help solve multi-dimensional urban plight.
After spending over six years conducting research on urban planning in Iraq, Sebastian Schulz and Niran Banna explore how war and terrorism turned a once-cosmopolitan city into a divided metropolis.
Bronwyn Kotzen is a qualified architect, and urban researcher at the Public Affairs Research Institute (PARI), a Wits University affiliate.
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The Global Urbanist is an online magazine reviewing urban affairs and urban development issues in cities throughout the developed and developing world.
Its readers are drawn from the urban policy and international development sectors, and include urban planners, officers in local, national or international government agencies, civil society leaders, and researchers.
