Sustaining Cape Town

Lecture series coordinated by Professor Gordon Pirie, Deputy Director, African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town

The popular press often projects the idea that urbanisation in Cape Town is out of control and is the cause of many of the ills the city faces. Urbanisation experts will reconsider the argument on the basis of available evidence in this three lecture series.

The first lecture will dwell on the problematics of sprawl and other inefficiencies. The case of Cape Town will be located within a broader African and international context in order to understand the real policy issues that surround the challenges of urbanisation. Because of the legacy of apartheid Cape Town still exhibits unsustainable spatial patterns along lines of economic privilege. The second lecture will focus on urban regeneration. It will examine the policy opportunities and institutional obstacles faced by the City of Cape Town in creating a more compact and vital central city.

Poor people struggle to access food as a result of geographical and financial constraints. Daily as many as eighty per cent of households in poorer areas of Cape Town fail to obtain enough food to meet their dietary needs. There is enough food in the city but it is not easily available to all its inhabitants. The final lecture will explore how and where households access food and suggest some possible urban responses.

LECTURE TITLES
1. Urbanisation dynamics - Prof Edgar Pieterse
Download podcast: https://vula.uct.ac.za/access/content/group/6e2ca09f-6e0c-4496-86ff-53c4...
2. Densification - Ismail Farouk (podcast not available)
3. Food services and security - Dr Jane Battersby-Lennard
Download podcast: https://vula.uct.ac.za/access/content/group/6e2ca09f-6e0c-4496-86ff-53c4...

Related website:
African Centre for Cities http://africancentreforcities.net/