Environmental problem-solving in South Africa: harnessing creative imaginaries to address ‘wicked’ challenges and opportunities

Vogel, Coleen; Scott, Dianne; Culwick, Christina; Sutherland, Catherine

doi:10.1080/03736245.2016.1217256

Cited by 39 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Transparency of decision-making process 29 Trust in law-enforcement Regulatory framework: formal rules and norms 30 Laws in place to protect environment and facilitate disaster management 31…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One of the aims of the PRP, the multi-sector partnership forming the focus of this assessment, is to work toward resolving this issue. The PRP is an innovative project which integrates water and climate governance in the Palmiet River Catchment in Durban, through a partnership between municipal officials, research institutions, community-based organizations and ordinary citizens [29,48]. The PRP forms part of the broader uMngeni Ecological Infrastructure Project (UEIP) which is a multi-actor governance network aiming to secure water resources in the uMngeni Catchment, a river basin which enables six million people to live and prosper in South Africa's third largest regional economy, by enhancing the value of ecological infrastructure [49].…”

Section: Study Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Through the integration of stakeholders from various sectors, multi-sector partnerships are also inherently transdisciplinary. This is an important necessity, as single disciplinary approaches often fail in addressing intractable problems, and a range of knowledge, methodologies and learning needs to be considered for implementable sustainable solutions to environmental issues [29]. Transdisciplinarity can be viewed as an extension of interdisciplinarity, facilitating integration of disciplinary paradigms, and encouraging participation from a range of different stakeholders [19].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Informal Settlements and Flooding: Identifying Strengths and Weaknesses in Local Governance for Water Management

Williams

Costa

Celliers

et al. 2018

Water

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Urbanization and climate change are compounding the vulnerability of flooding for the urban poor, particularly in the Global South. However, local governance can be a greater determinant of flood risk than the hazard itself. Identifying strengths and weaknesses in local governance for water management is therefore crucial. This paper presents a governance assessment for Quarry Road West informal settlement, Durban, South Africa, in relation to flood risk by applying the Capital Approach Framework. Through developing a deeper understanding of the current governance system, the embeddedness of several social values can also be gauged. This is important particularly for integrative and transdisciplinary management of flood risk, enacted in the case of Quarry Road West informal settlement through the Palmiet Rehabilitation Project, a multi sector partnership at the climate change and water governance interface. Findings from this study indicate that, currently, climate change adaptation remains a challenge for decision-makers and policy-planners. A more effective integration of the residents of Quarry Road West informal settlement into local governance for water management is urgently needed. This is particularly important in the context of informal settlements that are marginalized and often lacking governance mechanisms to affect change. land in the inner core of cities, where the urban poor can gain improved access to urban resources such as healthcare, emergency services, policing or education through governmental schools, or on the periphery of cities, where land is available [5].At the same time, climate change is affecting the frequency, intensity, and predictability of environmental risk [2,6]. Cities are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change due to the combination of increased precipitation, storm events and floods, extended periods of decreased precipitation and drought events, prolonged stages of intense heat and cold, and rising sea levels. Social vulnerability is commonly concentrated in hazard-prone areas in the city and there is a growing insufficiency of urban infrastructure to cope with the impacts of climate change and protect the population. This highlights the necessity for risk-informed development of urban infrastructure such as road and rail transport, communications, water and energy to deal with the impacts of rapid urbanization and climate change [2].Thus, the New Urban Agenda lists "enhancing urban resilience to climate change and disaster risks" as one of its key challenges for sustainable cities and communities [5]. However, cities also offer significant opportunities for addressing climate change through innovation, efficiencies and the potential for the appropriate governance of, and planning for, mitigation and adaption efforts. Population growth and spatial expansion are further exacerbating flood vulnerability for poor populations in many countries [7], transforming the relationship between bio-physical and social systems [8]. With poor housing and basic services c...

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Study Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Informal Settlements and Flooding: Identifying Strengths and Weaknesses in Local Governance for Water Management

Williams

Costa

Celliers

et al. 2018

Water

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“…In the context of unresolved data issues and our experience with economic valuation of green assets, we faced the challenge of finding alternative methods to influence decision-makers to adopt green infrastructure strategies. The GCRO embraced this challenge by launching a CityLab in early 2014, where a range of stakeholders from government and academia engaged around how to incorporate GI into planning and decision-making (Vogel et al 2016). The GI CityLab was held every two months over the course of a year.…”

Section: Exploring New Approaches To 'Land' Ideas With Policy Makersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Doing more with less (data): complexities of resource flow analysis in the Gauteng City-Region

Culwick

Götz

Butcher

et al. 2017

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Urban metabolism is a growing field of study into resource flows through cities, and how these could be managed more sustainably. There are two main schools of thought on urban metabolism-metabolic flow analysis (MFA) and urban political ecology (UPE). The two schools remain siloed despite common foundations. This paper reflects on recent research by the Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO) into urban sustainability transitions in South Africa's Gauteng City-Region, a large and sprawling urban formation that faces a host of sustainability challenges including water deficits, erratic electricity supply, stretched infrastructure networks and increasingly carbon-intensive settlement patterns. Three GCRO research projects are reviewed. Each project began with the assumption that data collection on the region's metabolism could enable an MFA or MFA-like analysis to highlight where possible resource efficiency and sustainability gains might be achieved. However, in each case we confronted severe datalimitations, and ended up asking UPE-style questions on the reasons for and implications of the chronic paucity of urban metabolism data. We have been led to conclude that urban metabolism research will require much more than just assembling and modelling flows data, although these efforts should not be abandoned. A synthesis of MFA and UPE is needed, which simultaneously builds a deeper understanding of resource flows and the systems that govern these flows. We support the emerging approach in political-industrial ecology literature which values both material data on and socio-political insight into urban metabolism, and emphasises the importance of multi-disciplinary and multi-dimensional analysis to inform decision-making in urban sustainability transitions.

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“…Apple, 1996;Ball, 2013;Lewis, 2001); to intercultural education (e.g. Dolan, 2014;Gorski, 2008); from epistemologies of the Global North and South that has challenged Northern frameworks of knowledge creation (Santos, 2016); to inter-disciplinary research (Callard & Fitzgerald, 2015;Nowak, 2013;Vogel, Scott, Culwick, & Sutherland, 2016). Common across many of these frameworks is a process of making transparent the multiple positions that people bring to a space of learning or inquiry, and of valuing multiple forms of knowledge (Indigenous knowledges, cultural, embodied, and technical knowledges).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unpacking the imaginary in literacies of globality

Perry

2018

Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education

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As global mobility and communications proliferate, ever-increasing exchanges and influences occur across cultures, geographies, politics, and positions. This paper addresses the practice of literacy education in this context, and in particular the nature of engagement across difference and the role of the imaginary in literacies of globality. Grounded in a theorisation of difference and the imaginary in spaces of learning and inquiry, the paper proposes a methodological framework for working across difference that acknowledges and engages with the inevitable but enigmatic resource of often conflicting imaginaries in literacy practices.

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Environmental problem-solving in South Africa: harnessing creative imaginaries to address ‘wicked’ challenges and opportunities

Cited by 39 publications

References 43 publications

Informal Settlements and Flooding: Identifying Strengths and Weaknesses in Local Governance for Water Management

Informal Settlements and Flooding: Identifying Strengths and Weaknesses in Local Governance for Water Management

Doing more with less (data): complexities of resource flow analysis in the Gauteng City-Region

Unpacking the imaginary in literacies of globality

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