Translational Global Praxis: Rethinking Methods and Modes of African Urban Research

Abstract

Advancing global urbanism depends upon making Africa's cities a more dominant part of the global urban narrative. Constructing a more legitimate research agenda for African cities, however, necessitates a repositioning of conventional modes of research. To achieve intellectual and political traction in what are typical African research conditions-where human needs are great, information is poor, conditions of governance are complex and the reality is changeable--we reflect on the experiences of the African Centre for Cities where (alongside conventional use of theory, methods and data) a translational mode of working has been adopted. The notion of translational urban research praxis captures more than the idea of applied research or even co-production, and encompasses integrating the research conception, design, execution, application and reflection--and conceiving of this set of activities as a singular research/practice process that is by its nature deeply political and locationally embedded. In this way we suggest that African urbanism can be both usefully illuminated by global theories and methods, and can simultaneously be constitutive of the reform of the ideas through which cities generally are understood.

Rethinking sustainable cities: Accessible, green and fair

“…In his authoritative overview, the urban historian reminds us that each man recognised that his experimental prescriptions for urban form took place in a wider socio-political context and a consciousness that their utopian master plans would generally not be implemented on a blank slate. This kind of grounded utopianism is consistent with recent thinking of locally constructed or translational knowledge and practice (Parnell and Pieterse, 2015). It also ultimately underlies much subsequent evolution in planning theory and associated practice, to the extent that its heritage and ongoing relevance are clearly discernible in all three main chapters in this book.…”

“…Hence, global, national and city leaders are beginning to assess how they might change their practice to better align action in, on and from cities with this utopian vision of sustainable development. The universal concept of 'a fair city' provides a translational bridge between what is said and what can actually be done in the diverse urban circumstances where inequality and unfair practice prevail (Parnell and Pieterse, 2015). Integrating into a single process the conception, design and execution of an idea intended to bring about change, this chapter probes what making a fairer urban future might entail; both for thought and action in the urban domain.…”

Policy mobilities as comparison: urbanization processes, repeated instances, topologies

“…In this the voices and insights of numerous scholars in many different places who work very hard to engage with, critique, and localize certain prominent traveling ideas should be carefully attended to, to inspire more sustained comparative reflection and theoretical revision. The creative and agentful work of conceptualization which is carried out across diverse specific cities indicates a terrain of political obligations -of inclusivity, of respectful scholarly debate, and inclusive publishing regimes (Parnell and Pieterse, 2016). But it also signposts the possibilities of the comparative imagination.…”

Sustainable Urbanization on Occupied Land? The Politics of Infrastructure Development and Resettlement in Beira City, Mozambique

“…Critical scholars have pointed to the fact that many of these visions essentially constitute variations of the same top-down market-oriented and techno-rationalist logic, which are ill-suited to realizing progressive urban change [9,11]. It is against this background that leading African urbanists have sought a closer engagement with the realms of policy and politics, so as to contribute to the formulation of emancipatory urban change [12]. Advocating for such an approach in a recent GIZ report, Pieterse et al [3] have called for a new agenda of sustainable urbanization, hinged on the notion of sustainable infrastructure which, among other things, 'depends on the activation of citizens and rights' (p. 15).…”