Doctoral Degrees (Urban and Regional Planning)

Permanent URI for this collection

http://hdl.handle.net/11660/470

Browse

Browsing Doctoral Degrees (Urban and Regional Planning) by Subject "Cultural frameworks"

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Indigenous knowledge systems, spatial planning and planning legislation: the case of Windhoek, Namibia
    (University of the Free State, 2021) Billawer, Wilson Hungiree; Nel, Verna
    Since the independence of Namibia in 1990, the social problems of the low-income areas persist despite the amendments of the laws to improve their well-being. However, planning in Namibia adopted a market-led approach to solve urban problems, and the good intentions of the various new policies and programmes did not reach all the residents in urban areas. The case study of the Havana settlement, a low-income area in Windhoek containing both formal and informal sections, exemplifies the skewed relationships between planning officials and residents. Although planning focuses on the provision of services and housing in low-income areas, the Havana case study demonstrated that there are other pressing needs which planning does not take into consideration. The lack of accessible and useful community open spaces for various sociocultural activities is a major concern. As a result, increased stress levels were observed in the Havana community, with negative consequences for the well-being of both the area and its residents. Having adopted an indigenous knowledge system (IKS) lens, the study first elaborated on the past planning practices to illustrate how planning was involved in creating such deficits in the low-income areas, and how such approaches were re-adopted by the post-apartheid administrations and continue in different forms, despite amended legislation and policies. The evolution of the conventional modernist planning approaches was elaborated upon, followed by various post-modern critiques raised against planning tools such as collaborative and participatory planning practices. To foreground IKS as an alternative or complementary planning approach, the study explored various cultural open spaces of two indigenous communities as case studies. The exploration was to identify which spatial IKS, still existing and useful, could be harnessed by planning as important tools that can assist in improving the well-being of the communities in low-income areas. The two cultural open spaces, the 𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘱𝘢𝘭𝘦 of the Ovawambo community, and the 𝘰𝘮𝘶𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘢 with its 𝘰𝘬𝘶𝘳𝘶𝘶𝘰 of the Ovaherero community, provided important insights in this regard. Aspects such as community respect, well-being, cooperation, environmental respect and care, are all issues which are being taught, lived and experienced at these cultural open spaces; hence their foregrounding in this study as essential spaces. The spatial IKS aspects revealed that planning, despite being caught up in neoliberal market-led policies, could still engage local knowledges to address the plight of the majority residents in low-income areas. These spatial IKS include cultural frameworks that empower local communities to help themselves and craft a better future for themselves and their long-term well-being. The study thus proposed for these spatial IKS to be included in legislation, policies and practices in Windhoek and the rest of the country. The study was largely qualitative research. Interviews, informal discussions, group circles (focus groups) storytelling approaches, and participant observation in various traditional events were engaged to obtain as much information as possible. The findings and analysis deduced that planning policies and practices continue to exclude the marginalised urban communities such as those in Havana, some due to reliance on a single rational process of solving problems. The study revealed that spatial IKS does exist and could help planning in addressing the well-being of low-income residential areas and their residents. It is hoped that the recommendations made in this study will enable, and lead to the improvement of relations through additional IKS input, between planners and their local communities, which could eventually lead to low-income areas such as Havana to be treated differently than in its current practice form. It is in this light, and the low levels of spatial IKS research and awareness in Namibia, that suggestions were made for further research on this topic be given increased consideration.