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 and prompts us to develop new ways of theorising and practicing planning and governance in African cities.
Sean Fox's provocative new theory that urbanisation is driven by demographic transition, not by economic growth, and that even rural development initiatives will directly cause increased urban populations.
How policies surrounding issues such as decentralisation, food security and armed conflict must now adapt to the maturing of Africa's urbanisation experience.
Vanessa Watson and Babatunde Agbola discuss how the Association of African Planning Schools (AAPS) hopes to transform the continent's planning paradigm starting with the professional education system.
The world's biggest logistics company maintains its largest African hub in Lagos. Kerwin Datu take a tour and learn how logistics operators and local authorities are learning to make the industry more sustainable.
Lots of 'solutions' get presented at events like the Urban and Housing Development conference in Cape Town, but can a model be sustainable if it excludes large parts of the city?
To help solve the problems of its dense peripheral regions, Cape Town needs increase residential densities in the inner suburbs to give more residents a chance to benefit from the jobs and services they provide.
Bronwyn Kotzen is a qualified architect, and urban researcher at the Public Affairs Research Institute (PARI), a Wits University affiliate.
Sign up here for email updates
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.
