The Agonistic City?

Towards a cooperative urbanism? An alternative conceptualization of urban development for Johannesburg’s mining belt

“…According to Pernegger, agonism promotes expressions of dissensus, "rather than trying to sidestep conflict through formal consensus-seeking mechanisms". (43) As a process, agonism implies the involvement of a truly representative spectrum of individuals from the broader civic population, and a strategy to place potentially vulnerable actors in positions of power. (44) The negotiation of urban space to create opportunities unfolds in highly individual and specific ways.…”

“…Following the collaborative and communicative turn in planning theory, (15) this paper asserts that academics, planners and designers -who are tasked with creating theories and delivering solutions for the built environment -are in a unique position to imagine these new forms of cooperation, and to negotiate them without extinguishing difference. (16) Cooperative urbanism encourages actors like the state to reorient policy to valorize difference and promote flourishing (17) for marginalized social groups rather than focusing on growth and competition; (18) it calls for an agonistic approach in conducting transdisciplinary engagement; (19) and encourages experimentation with cooperatives to manage collective resources and surmount shared challenges. (20) After discussing the paradox of planning and cooperation in the next section, the paper introduces the mining belt, then builds on these theoretical and contextual explorations to posit new institutional arrangements aligned with cooperative urbanism.…”