Southern urbanism and postcolonial critique of urban knowledge

This is just a very brief start of a resource page that will need to be expanded. But yet, a start.

Literature on Southern urbanism, postcolonial urbanism, postcolonial critique of urban knowledge

For a good summary see chapter in our MIT Press book Grounding Urban Natures, which is Open Access. You find it after the sections on “natures”, so the latter half on “Southern urbanism”. 

https://direct.mit.edu/books/book/4522/chapter/202253/Toward-Comparative-Urban-Environmentalism

Ernstson, Henrik, and Sverker Sörlin, eds. 2019. Grounding Urban Natures: Histories and Futures of Urban Ecologies. Cambridge: MIT Press. https://direct.mit.edu/books/book/4522/Grounding-Urban-NaturesHistories-and-Futures-of. #OpenAccess

Another introduction is here, our article:

Ernstson, Henrik, Mary Lawhon, and James Duminy. 2014. “Conceptual Vectors of African Urbanism: ‘Engaged Theory-Making’ and ‘Platforms of Engagement.’” Regional Studies 48 (9): 1563–77. https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2014.892573.

See our website http://www.situatedupe.net/ (Especially video resources there, http://www.situatedupe.net/learning/audio-visual-resources/

Urban planning and Southern urbanism

Vanessa Watson on urban planning.

Watson, Vanessa. 2003. “Conflicting Rationalities: Implications for Planning Theory and Ethics.” Planning Theory & Practice 4 (4): 395–407. https://doi.org/10.1080/1464935032000146318.

Watson, Vanessa. 2009. “Seeing from the South: Refocusing Urban Planning on the Globe’s Central Urban Issues.” Urban Studies 46 (11): 2259–75. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098009342598.

Parnell, Susan, and Vanessa Watson. 2009. “Planning for Cities in the Global South: An African Reserach Agenda for Sustainable Human Settlements.” Progress in Planning, 233–41.

Watson, Vanessa. 2015. “The Allure of ‘Smart City’ Rhetoric: India and Africa.” Dialogues in Human Geography 5 (1): 36–39. https://doi.org/10.1177/2043820614565868.

Watson, Vanessa. 2014. “African Urban Fantasies: Dreams or Nightmares?” Environment & Urbanization 26 (1): 215–31.

Southern knowledge centres

A selection of Southern knowledge centres:

• African Centre for Cities (AAC) at University of Cape Town, South Africa, https://www.africancentreforcities.net (Links to an external site.)
• Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS), Kengeri, Bengaluru, India, https://iihs.co.in (Links to an external site.)
• Muungano wa Wanavijiji, Nairobi, Kenya, https://www.muungano.net (Links to an external site.)
• Urban Action Lab (UAL) at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, http://ual.mak.ac.ug (Links to an external site.)
• CityScapes Magazine, Cape Town & London, https://cityscapesmagazine.com (Links to an external site.)
• Matahare Social Justice Coalition, Nairobi, Kenya https://www.matharesocialjustice.org (Links to an external site.)
• Slum Dwellers International, 32 countries, https://sdinet.org/jobs/ (Links to an external site.)
• African Cities Research Consortium (ACRC) at The University of Manchester, UK, https://www.african-cities.org (Links to an external site.)
• Association of African Planning Schools, https://africanplanningschools.org.za (Links to an external site.)
• Africa Is A Country, Cape Town & New York, https://africasacountry.com (Links to an external site.)

Note that I have only listed sites in English as they are more of these in other languages. If you know a different language, please see if you can find any other Southern knowledge centres.