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 (Ernstson and Sörlin, 2019), 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 to Southern urbanism (via studies of cities in Africa) is here:

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 also 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 is a towering figure on urban planning from a Southern perspective:

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

Who is in the know about urbanization of the global South? Here is a selection of excellent Southern knowledge centres:

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

These sites and centers are all in English. There are other equally important knowledge centres in other languages. If you have suggestions email me. The list is thus not exhaustive but a starting point.