Search results for ""Author Edgar Pieterse""

The outcome of a research exploration by the African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town, this study arises from the need to push forward a debate on how the specificity of African cities can be thought and theorized about. Its unique ambition is to produce new and relevant theoretical work on African urbanism in a way that works within the border zone between inherited theoretical resources, emergent postcolonial readings, and artistic representations of everyday practices and phenomenology in African cities. The result is a series of exchanges between scholars and artists which showcase an ensemble of diverse perspectives through which an account of African city-ness and its parameters can be advanced. The art featured in the book affords readers glimpses into quiet moments and the bustle alike, and reveals the inner life of a community and citizens, shaping the relationships between identity and urbanity. Through a series of textual and photographic essays, Rogue Urbanism seeks multiple alternatives in approaching and understanding the African city, without suggesting that a comprehensive grasp is possible. It also enlarges and deepens the search for the rogue intensities that mark African cities as they find their voice and footing in a truly unwieldy world.

Read more less

It is well known that the world is transitioning to an irrevocable urban future whose epicentre has moved into the cities of Asia and Africa. What is less clear is how this will be managed and deployed as a multi-polar world system is being born. The full implications of this challenge cry out to be understood because city building (and retrofitting) cannot but be an undertaking entangled in profound societal and cultural shifts. In this highly original account, renowned urban sociologists AbdouMaliq Simone and Edgar Pieterse offer a call for action based fundamentally on the detail of people's lives. Urban regions are replete with residents who are compelled to come up with innovative ways to maintain or extend livelihoods, whose makeshift character is rarely institutionalized into a fixed set of practices, locales or organizational forms. This novel analytical approach reveals a more complex relationship between people, the state and other agents than has previously been understood. As the authors argue, we need adequate concepts and practices to grasp the composition and intricacy of these shifting efforts to make visible new political possibilities for action and social justice in cities across Asia and Africa.

Read more less

It is well known that the world is transitioning to an irrevocable urban future whose epicentre has moved into the cities of Asia and Africa. What is less clear is how this will be managed and deployed as a multi-polar world system is being born. The full implications of this challenge cry out to be understood because city building (and retrofitting) cannot but be an undertaking entangled in profound societal and cultural shifts. In this highly original account, renowned urban sociologists AbdouMaliq Simone and Edgar Pieterse offer a call for action based fundamentally on the detail of people's lives. Urban regions are replete with residents who are compelled to come up with innovative ways to maintain or extend livelihoods, whose makeshift character is rarely institutionalized into a fixed set of practices, locales or organizational forms. This novel analytical approach reveals a more complex relationship between people, the state and other agents than has previously been understood. As the authors argue, we need adequate concepts and practices to grasp the composition and intricacy of these shifting efforts to make visible new political possibilities for action and social justice in cities across Asia and Africa.

Read more less