Questioning the mythologies of Hernando de Soto. Plaas Policy Brief, Oct 1, 2005
High levels of poverty and inequality persist in democratic South Africa despite a decade of gove... more High levels of poverty and inequality persist in democratic South Africa despite a decade of government policies and budgetary realignments designed to address the legacies of apartheid and steady economic growth. Some policies have been relatively successful: access by the poor to clean water, electricity and sanitation has improved dramatically, and increased numbers receive social grants. But South Africa has the second highest level of inequality in the world after Brazil, and the gap between the rich and the poor appears to ...
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Global Public Health, 2021
The term “global South” (or just “South” or “south”) refers to the diverse range of countries in ... more The term “global South” (or just “South” or “south”) refers to the diverse range of countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America that have a colonial past and are usually characterized by high levels of poverty and informality. The term global South has widely replaced other, similar, terms such as the Third World, developing countries, and low- and middle-income countries. Urbanization, in its narrow sense, refers to an increase in the proportion of the population living in urban areas; in its wider sense it refers to all the social, economic, biophysical, and institutional changes that result from and accompany urban growth, many of which have a profound impact on human health and well-being. The global South is the most rapidly urbanizing part of the world. Since about 2015, more than 75% of the world’s urban population lives in the global South. It is projected that by 2025, the urban population of the global South will be 3.75 billion (54.3% of the total population of the globa...
Current research suggests that knowledge co-production processes offer an alternate and enduring ... more Current research suggests that knowledge co-production processes offer an alternate and enduring approach to addressing urban sustainability challenges. This chapter explores the potential of such alternative approaches to knowledge production for informing urban management and tackling the different sustainability challenges that cities in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) face. The aim of this chapter is to extract the main lessons learned from how knowledge co-production approaches were established to engage with urban sustainability challenges in SSA cities and eventually unfolded. We draw on three applied and transdisciplinary urban research projects conducted at the African Centre for Cities (ACC) at the University of Cape Town, spanning the neighbourhood, city and national urban policy scales. We identify some of the key aspects of these urban knowledge partnerships related to the quality of the knowledge collaborations and their influence on outcomes. We adopt an analytical framework based on the criteria of legitimacy, credibility and salience to explore these relationships between collaboration and outcomes. The findings show that context and history are key variables in shaping each knowledge co-production partnership. Whilst urban policy change is often slow, the data and outputs generated through these knowledge collaboration and co-production processes can serve to increase the confidence and commitment of urban stakeholders in addressing urban sustainability challenges in SSA.
Remarkably little is known about how small and intermediate urban centres tackle their various su... more Remarkably little is known about how small and intermediate urban centres tackle their various sustainability challenges, particularly climate and broader environmental change. Accordingly, we address this in the very different contexts of India and South Africa. We conceptualise the small and intermediate towns, and the policy challenges and priorities for mitigating and adapting to the effects of climate/environmental change that can enable transformative adaptations to changing conditions. Central issues are the divisions of powers, responsibilities and the fiscal capacity and independence of local authorities within the respective countries’ multi-level policy and governance frameworks. In India, various functions have been constitutionally devolved to city governments to enable them to govern themselves, while more strategic ones lie at state level. In South Africa, the divisions of power and responsibility vary by city size category. We compare the relevant city government fun...
This reflective paper surveys the lessons learnt and challenges faced by the Mistra Urban Futures... more This reflective paper surveys the lessons learnt and challenges faced by the Mistra Urban Futures (MUF) research centre and its research platforms in Sweden, the UK, South Africa and Kenya in developing and deploying different forms of transdisciplinary co-production of knowledge. Considerable experience with a distinctive portfolio of such methods has been gained and reflective evaluation is now under way. While it is important to understand the local context within which each method has evolved, we seek to explain the potential for adaptation in diverse contexts so that such knowledge co-production methods can be more widely utilized. Furthermore, the current phase of MUF’s work is undertaking innovative comparative transdisciplinary co-production research across its research platforms. Since the specific local projects differ, systematic thematic comparison requires great care and methodological rigour. Transdisciplinary co-production is inherently complex, time consuming and oft...
Questioning the mythologies of Hernando de Soto. Plaas Policy Brief, Oct 1, 2005
High levels of poverty and inequality persist in democratic South Africa despite a decade of gove... more High levels of poverty and inequality persist in democratic South Africa despite a decade of government policies and budgetary realignments designed to address the legacies of apartheid and steady economic growth. Some policies have been relatively successful: access by the poor to clean water, electricity and sanitation has improved dramatically, and increased numbers receive social grants. But South Africa has the second highest level of inequality in the world after Brazil, and the gap between the rich and the poor appears to ...
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Global Public Health, 2021
The term “global South” (or just “South” or “south”) refers to the diverse range of countries in ... more The term “global South” (or just “South” or “south”) refers to the diverse range of countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America that have a colonial past and are usually characterized by high levels of poverty and informality. The term global South has widely replaced other, similar, terms such as the Third World, developing countries, and low- and middle-income countries. Urbanization, in its narrow sense, refers to an increase in the proportion of the population living in urban areas; in its wider sense it refers to all the social, economic, biophysical, and institutional changes that result from and accompany urban growth, many of which have a profound impact on human health and well-being. The global South is the most rapidly urbanizing part of the world. Since about 2015, more than 75% of the world’s urban population lives in the global South. It is projected that by 2025, the urban population of the global South will be 3.75 billion (54.3% of the total population of the globa...
Current research suggests that knowledge co-production processes offer an alternate and enduring ... more Current research suggests that knowledge co-production processes offer an alternate and enduring approach to addressing urban sustainability challenges. This chapter explores the potential of such alternative approaches to knowledge production for informing urban management and tackling the different sustainability challenges that cities in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) face. The aim of this chapter is to extract the main lessons learned from how knowledge co-production approaches were established to engage with urban sustainability challenges in SSA cities and eventually unfolded. We draw on three applied and transdisciplinary urban research projects conducted at the African Centre for Cities (ACC) at the University of Cape Town, spanning the neighbourhood, city and national urban policy scales. We identify some of the key aspects of these urban knowledge partnerships related to the quality of the knowledge collaborations and their influence on outcomes. We adopt an analytical framework based on the criteria of legitimacy, credibility and salience to explore these relationships between collaboration and outcomes. The findings show that context and history are key variables in shaping each knowledge co-production partnership. Whilst urban policy change is often slow, the data and outputs generated through these knowledge collaboration and co-production processes can serve to increase the confidence and commitment of urban stakeholders in addressing urban sustainability challenges in SSA.
Remarkably little is known about how small and intermediate urban centres tackle their various su... more Remarkably little is known about how small and intermediate urban centres tackle their various sustainability challenges, particularly climate and broader environmental change. Accordingly, we address this in the very different contexts of India and South Africa. We conceptualise the small and intermediate towns, and the policy challenges and priorities for mitigating and adapting to the effects of climate/environmental change that can enable transformative adaptations to changing conditions. Central issues are the divisions of powers, responsibilities and the fiscal capacity and independence of local authorities within the respective countries’ multi-level policy and governance frameworks. In India, various functions have been constitutionally devolved to city governments to enable them to govern themselves, while more strategic ones lie at state level. In South Africa, the divisions of power and responsibility vary by city size category. We compare the relevant city government fun...
This reflective paper surveys the lessons learnt and challenges faced by the Mistra Urban Futures... more This reflective paper surveys the lessons learnt and challenges faced by the Mistra Urban Futures (MUF) research centre and its research platforms in Sweden, the UK, South Africa and Kenya in developing and deploying different forms of transdisciplinary co-production of knowledge. Considerable experience with a distinctive portfolio of such methods has been gained and reflective evaluation is now under way. While it is important to understand the local context within which each method has evolved, we seek to explain the potential for adaptation in diverse contexts so that such knowledge co-production methods can be more widely utilized. Furthermore, the current phase of MUF’s work is undertaking innovative comparative transdisciplinary co-production research across its research platforms. Since the specific local projects differ, systematic thematic comparison requires great care and methodological rigour. Transdisciplinary co-production is inherently complex, time consuming and oft...
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Papers by Warren Smit