Mainstreaming informality and access to land through collaborative design and teaching of aspects of a responsive planning curriculum at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology

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Date
2012
Authors
Tapela, Nigel
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Publisher
Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University of the Free State
Abstract
English: Access to urban land and resources and the pervasiveness of informality are perhaps the main cross-cutting features defining contemporary urbanism in the South, where the urbanisation of poverty is not only acute but where there is an increasing peripheralisation of the urban poor further from economic opportunities. A critical challenge is the emergence and persistence of informality and particularly the growth of informal settlements and the informal economy, and the nature of official responses to this growing phenomenon. Planning curricula and practices have been reactive, at best, to these challenges, and routinely tended to wish these realities away or treat them as temporary problems, at least in the short and medium term. The centrality of access to land is not necessarily the scarcity of land in itself, but what the land makes possible as the resource base, and therefore what benefits competing actors are able to derive from accessing well-located land in a city. Against the backdrop of the regional context of urban informality and the historical dynamics of colonial planning legacies, this article argues that the curricula of planning schools should focus on local substantive contexts, and case studies, as well as on developing deeper and more sustained collaborations with local actors in implementing locally responsive curricula. The choice of thematic issues is strategic: informality and access to land are two critical issues of substance while collaborative design and teaching is a process issue, undergirding the value basis for/of planning. The latter, collaborative curriculum design and teaching, refers to a more deliberative engagement with context, substance and actors in an African planning environment in curriculum development, design, implementation as well as sourcing and developing learning materials that speak to local contexts. Planning education is an important lever in shifting into this needed strategic ‘turn’ in planning practices that demand a more sophisticated toolkit comprising of a balance of strategic, technical and tactical assemblage of tools.
Afrikaans: Toegang tot stedelike grond en hulpbronne en die verspreiding van informaliteit is waarskynlik die vernaamste kenmerke wat hedendaagse stedelikheid in the Suide definieer, waar verstedeliking van armoede nie slegs akuut is nie, maar waar die vestiging van arm gemeenskappe op die rand van stedelike gebiede ’n toenemende tendens is, weg vanaf ekonomiese geleenthede. ’n Kritieke uitdaging is die ontstaan en voortsetting van informaliteit, en spesifiek die groei van informele nedersettings en die informele ekonomie, sowel as die aard van amptelike reaksies op hierdie toenemende verskynsel. Beplanningskurrikulums en praktyke is ten beste reaktief op hierdie uitdagings, en is dikwels geneig om hierdie realiteite weg te wens of as tydelike probleem te beskou; ten minste op die kort- en mediumtermyn. Die sentraliteit van toegang tot grond is nie noodwendig die skaarsheid van grond self nie, maar wel wat die grond moontlik as ’n hulpbronbasis kan bied, en daarom watter voordele kompeterende rolspelers bereid is om van hierdie grond te verkry op die regte plek in ’n stad. Teen die agtergrond van die streekskonteks van stedelike informaliteit en die geskiedkundige dinamiek van koloniale beplanningsnalatenskap, redeneer hierdie artikel dat die kurrikulums van beplanningskole meer op plaaslike inhoudskontekste en gevallestudies moet fokus, en dieper en meer volhoubare samewerking met plaaslike rolspelers moet ontwikkel met die implementering van kurrikulums wat plaaslik meer aanvaarbaar is. Die keuse van tematiese sake is strategies: informaliteit en toegang tot grond is twee kritieke sake, terwyl samewerkende ontwerp en onderrig prosessake is, wat onderliggend is aan die waardebasis vir/van beplanning. Hierdie saak, asook samewerkende kurrikulumontwerp en onderrig, handel oor ’n meer beraadslagende betrokkenheid by konteks, inhoud en rolspelers in ’n Afrika beplanningsomgewing in kurrikulumontwikkeling, ontwerp, implementering asook verkryging en ontwikkeling van leermateriaal oor plaaslike kontekste. Beplanningsonderrig is ’n belangrike rat in die skuiwing binne hierdie nodige strategiese draaipunt in beplanningspraktyke wat ’n meer gesofistikeerde hulpmiddel eis, bestaande uit ’n balans van strategie, sowel as tegniese en taktiese samevoeging van hulpmiddels.
SeSotho: Ho ba le lefatshe kapa naha le mehlodi esitana le ho sa tsitsa ho batsi mohlomong e ka ba tsona dintho tse hlahelang tse hlalosang phallelo ya dibaka tsa metse ya ditoropo ya kgale ka leholakoreng la Borwa; moo phallelo ya bofuma ba dibaka tsa metse ya ditoropo e seng feela mpe, empa e le moo ho nang le keketseho ya meedi ya batho ba phelang metseng ya ditoropo ba futsanahileng ba leng hole le menyetla ya tsa moruo ho feta. Phepetso e matla ke yona ho hlahela le ho phehella ha ho hloka botsitso haholoholo kgolo ya dibaka tsa makeishene kapa tsa mekhukhu esitana le moruo o sa tsitsang, le sebopeho sa dikarabo tsa semmuso kgodumodumong ena ya kgolo. Moralo wa kharikhulamo le diphethahatso di bile le kameho diphepetsong tsena, mme hanyenyane tsa lakatsa ho lahla mathata ana kapa ho a tadima e le a nakwana feela; bonyane nakong e kgutshwanyane le e bohareng. Tabakgolo ya ho ba le lefatshe kapa yona naha ha se hakaalo ho sa be le naha kapa lefatshe ka boyona, empa hore na lefatshe lena le fana ka eng jwalo ka mohlodi wa motheo le hore na ke ditholwana dife tseo bahlodisane ba amehang ba kgonang ho di fumana ho tswa lefatsheng lena tulong e ntle motseng wa ditoropo. Ka ho wela tlase ha sebaka sa lebatowa la ho hloka botsitso ha dibaka tsa metse ya ditoropo esitana le diphetoho tsa nalane moralo o siilweng ke bokoloni, ditaba tsena di bolela hore lenane la dithuto la moralo wa dikolo le tlamehile ho tsepamisa mohopolo ditabeng tse tadimaneng le lehae, dithutong tsa thuto le ho ntshetsa pele ditshebedisano tse tebileng le tse kgolo le batho ba amehang phethahatsong ya karabelo ya kharikhulamo ya lehae. Kgetho ya ditema tsa ditaba e bewa ka leano: ho hloka botsitso le ho ba le naha ke ditaba tse pedi tse kgolo tse nang le moko ha letshwao la tshebedisano le ho ruta e le taba ya tshebetso, ho tlama bohlokwa ba moralo. Sena se sa tswa bolelwa mona, e leng tshebediso ya lenane la dithuto (kharikhulamo) ho rala le ho ruta e bua ka tshebetso e tlwaelehileng ya nnete e tsamaelanang, moko le batho ba amehang moralong wa tikoloho wa Afrika popong ya lenane la dithuto (kharikhulamo), moralo, phethahatso ekasitana le ho fana ka mehlodi le ho bopa disebediswa tse buang ka dintho tse tsamaelanang le tsa lehae. Moralo wa thuto ke setshehetsi sa bohlokwa ho kena leanong lena le hlokehang la “phetoho” diphethahatsong tsa moralo tse hlokang mokotlana wa disebediswa tsa boemo bo phahameng tse nang le botsitso ba leano, bothekeniki le disebediswa tse phuthilweng tsa sethekeniki.
Description
Keywords
Urbanisation, Informal settlements, Informal economy, Curriculum
Citation
Tapela, N. (2013). Mainstreaming informality and access to land through collaborative design and teaching of aspects of a responsive planning curriculum at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. Town and Regional Planning, 60, 10-18.