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For the past 15 years I have given a lecture during the first module of our masters course on sustainable development on the evolution of the global economy from about 1850 onwards and how this relates to the history of economic theory as we have moved through different paradigms. At the end of this 4 hour lecture I am often asked for a reference to a book that covers the same ground in a similar way. I usually vaguely refer to Tony Judt or Castells or some others, but none of these really cover the material as I do this lecture. I think I have finally come across a text that does the trick (albeit written from a global North perspective), and this is the book by Paul Mason entitled Postcapitalism: A guide to our future. I will in future be recommending this really useful book. I’ll be drawing heavily from this text for the course on alternative economics that I am teaching this coming week which I am determined to keep focused on alternatives rather than remain in the comfort zone of critique. No-one disagrees that we face a crisis – there is not much point belabouring the point. What we lack is imaginative ways of thinking beyond the crisis. As Frederic Jameson put it: ‘It seems easier for us today to imagine the thoroughgoing deterioration of the earth and of nature than the breakdown of late capitalism’ (http://newleftreview.org/II/21/fredricjameson-future-city). So what lies beyond the current polycrisis given that we are living in the information age (Castells), governed by neo-liberal economics which may be intellectually bankrupt but remains powerful because of its profound reductionism, and we are experiencing a crisis of what it means to be human (following the posthumanist turn, or new materialism – Rosi Braidotti etc) in the Anthropocent at a time when most of us now live in cities.

Tau Tavenga, Edgar Pieterse and I presented a short film at the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (#(IABR) that I think represents the most satisfying depiction of the really extra-ordinary complexity, dynamism, vibrancy, pain, struggles and potentials of the continent that I have ever seen. I have for so long felt oppressed by the traditional tropes – Africa as slums, Africa as corrupt, Africa as entrepreneurial, Africa as rising, Africa the basket case, Africa the unlit, and so on. How to capture the real complexity and multi-dimensionality with all its contradictions and inspirations. I think Tau did a really excellent job in this ten minute depiction of so much that accords with the Africa that I know, sense, smell, relish, cry about and so so love! Treat yourself, watch this or click HERE. (Password for access: thisisnotatest1476)

At the second anniversary party of the Centre for Agroecology Water and Resilience at University of Coventry today with Kumi Naidoo (right) and CAWR Director Michel Pimbert. Keynotes delivered by Frances Moore-Lappe and Kumi Naidoo. Inspiring day! Click here for pics and post.

This is my last week at the Urban Institute at Sheffield where I have more or less been based for most of my sabbatical these past three months. Headed up by Prof Simon Marvin (co-author of the seminal work on urban infrastructures and many other publications on infrastructure transitions), this is a newly established institute that aims to connect the different disciplines at Sheffield interested in urban research. I’ve had a nice quiet working space in the ICOSS building in the centre of Sheffield, and cycled there each day from the two different places I have stayed – houses in Crooks and Sharrow. I have enjoyed working in an open-plan office, with windows that open (ok, only slightly – this is the UK after all). Coffee shops, restaurants and bookstores all around – the University seems to dominate the town. Sheffield is hilly, and everyone likes to get out to walk in the Pennines – a beautiful range of mountains that separates Yorkshire from North West/East England. During the rare days that the sun shines, they rush out to turn themselves into lobsters. I have used all my writing time here to complete the first draft of a report for the International Resource Panel entitled Resource Requirements of Future Urbanization (REFURB) based on work by teams in different parts of the world who have been working together for nearly three years. I have loved writing it, and hopefully it will be published after the 6 peer reviewers have done what they need to do by early 2017. I think its going to make a positive impact based on the reactions to some of the thinking during various talks. I have also worked with John van Breda to complete our journal article on transdisciplinary research – the basis for a well-received talk at Coventry University. I have also worked with Simon Marvin and his great new team here to develop a proposal for some mega-funding to take the REFURB work to the next stage. We secured the pre-funding while I was here, and all the people who we have invited to a workshop in November here have responded extremely positively – as Simon put it, we are assembling a dream team to take forward the REFURB agenda as a core project of the Urban Institute. The Institute will also have its official launch during this workshop, and Simon has invited Maarten Hajer to deliver the keynote. Stitching together strong partnerships with Simon’s Urban Institute and Maarten’s newly established centre at Utrecht University called the Urban Futures Studio is vitally important for the success of my new centre, the Centre for Complex Systems in Transition (that I co-director with Jannie Hofmeyr). It will be sad leaving here on Thursday, but so looking forward to being back in Stellenbosch and to teaching a brand new course that starts on Monday on ‘new economic theory’. In such a fast changing world, it is vitally important for African academics to circulate as much as possible, ensuring that we don’t lose sight of the global challenges as we obsess about our own – we must at all costs avoid the mistakes others have made which is costing them billions to undo.

As happens each year in a significant city somewhere in the world, an amazing array of networks and thinkers came together this year at the 2016 #UrbanAge conference – like in previous years, it was an urbanist’s extravaganza carefully choreographed by Ricky Burdett and his excellent team from LSE Cities. This one took place in yet another extra-ordinary building, this time, of course, in Venice within the Venice Architecture Biennale precinct. Loaded with history, contradictory meanings, historical self-importance, convenient memories of heroic pasts and the kind of crumbling denial of glitzy modernity that the chattering architectural community prefers, the inner sanctum of the space was assembled around a fish-bowel oval table where speakers and panelists sit while blue downlighters fade out the crowd in the background where they sit mesmerised by the three giant screens that project the faces of speakers straining to squash their respective messages into 10 and 5 minute sound bites, often backed by the breath-taking imagery of today’s urban porn from empty Chinese cities, to waves of Mexican slums, to floating schools in Lagos, to yet another photo-shopped airborne pic of Manhattan. As we all act out our roles in this one-time recorded performance of intense dialogical collective sense-making, we all extract what we need – sometimes just confirmations of the known, to triggers of new trajectories of thought, to discoveries of new information and personalities.

For me, two sessions stand out: on the first day there was a session with presentations by the Mayor of Barcelona, Ada Calou and Deputy Mayor of Paris, Jean-Louis Missika. The other on the second day was addressed by three internationally renowned architects – Alejandro Aravena (Curator of the Venice Biennale), Rahul Mehrotra from India and Kunele Adeyemi from Nigeria (based in The Netherlands).

Ada Calou talked about the process of transforming the Indignados social movement (that has periodically occupied Barcelona over the past years in protest against austerity economics) into a governing alliance, followed by the challenge of tackling the social and environmental challenges of Barcelona from the perspective of the majority of citizens. As she put it, “we transformed a feeling of indignation into a movement of proposition and action”.

In his presentation on the second day, Alejandro said “diagnosis is fine, but the role of design is to come up with a proposal – that is the essence of architecture.”

Like all my experiences this sabbatical, I think I was listening for clues about the ‘the how’ of change – or what I have referred to in my talks as the evolutionary potential of the present that we work with to shape possible futures. What I like about both these quotes is the way they capture the essence of ‘the how’, i.e. that after understanding the enormous complexity of a given context, the politician or designer has a duty to galvanise action by making a specific proposal that does not deny the complexity but recognises that a hard choice must be made as to what specific (inevitably simplified) action is required to make the biggest impact. This means what is proposed is never a final resolution – it is, rather, a provisional solution that will create a new set of complex conditions for ongoing contestation and transformation.

Returning to Ada Colou, she talked about “moving the politics of the street into the institutions” which gave rise to the new municipalism where progressive alternatives can be articulated. Her target? – the model of urban development that emerged during the years of neo-liberalism when property development driven by financialisation resulted in rising inequalities and social exclusion. Her focus now is what she called the ‘social emergency’ caused by the financial crisis, austerity economics and mass evictions resulting from property repossessions by the banks. A key action has been to reclaim the properties confiscated by the banks.

Her overall strategy is about fighting social exclusion and making Barcelona an international innovation capital. A key instrument is the procurement criteria that are used when the municipality sub-contracts contractors for particular services – these criteria now include social and environmental criteria. At the global level, she envisages exerting policy influence by participating in global networks of cities, such as United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) which is now based in Barcelona in a building made available by her administration.

The Deputy Mayor of Paris talked about an extra-ordinary initiative to use properties owned by the Municipality to leverage innovation. 22 properties were identified and calls for proposals to develop them were issued. It was made clear that successful bidders would be those who demonstrated the most innovative idea for each property. Criteria were included that specified that designers and developers must collaborate with start-ups, artists, communities and social enterprises, and that the result must include facilities/spaces of common interest, and materials used must be more environmental. They received 850 expressions of interest from all over the world. They selected 22, and some of the projects have already started. Importantly, this programme is motivated by a desire to mobilise private sector investments to achieve public purposes in light of the fact that the municipality does not have the funds needed to meet the needs of the city.

For Alejandro Aravena, our greatest challenge is to “build homes for 1 million people per week with a budget of $10 000 each.” This, however, will not be achieved if completed home structures are built. Instead, the approach should be incremental housing that provides services and a core house/apartment. His conclusion is that we need three things: good design, rule of law and patient capital – he’s adamant that impatient capital (i.e. a financialized economy) will not enable appropriate investments to meet the challenges of our times. I hope Deutche Bank, sponsor of Urban Age, was listening!

Kunle Adeyemi and Rahul Mohatra followed up, both emphasizing the importance of innovation by working with rather than against complex urban dynamics. For Adeyemi it means recognising that most cities are coastal cities, which means designing for rising water levels as climate change accelerates. For Mohatra we need to take more seriously what he calls ephemeral cities, i.e. pop-up or temporary cities that get quickly assembled, some of which get dismantled after use (e.g. after religious festivals), while others – such as refugee camps – can last for decades.

Henk Ovink, Special Envoy for Water of the Kingdom of the Netherlands summed up the challenge of action when he said “we dont start because we are too scared of making mistakes.” He based his talk on his experiences as a member of President Obama’s Hurricane Sandy Task Team which did not have such fears, but a $60 billion does help if you anticipated mistakes!

Enrique Penalosa, now once again Mayor of Bogota and a regular at Urban Age conferences, made the final presentation of the conference. He argued that Latin America as the most recently urbanized region is a good example of what other still urbanizing regions like India and Africa should NOT do.He made a loud and passionate call to avoid building highways for cars, advocating instead comprehensive bus systems, wide pedestrian sidewalks and formal bicycle lanes. There is something so compelling about his sentence that “a bus stuck in traffic is as undemocratic as not giving women the vote”.

My own talk on the resource requirements of future urbanization (based on our work for the International Resource Panel), was one of the few that addressed resource and environmental issues (which surprised me). True, Aravena also did when he said that building houses for the newly urbanized may be our biggest challenge now, but if we succeed we’ll have another challenge – a climate crisis if we don’t find ways of using low carbon building materials and building systems. Curiously, some found what I had to say very new, i.e. the resource rather than climate perspective on the sustainability challenge. Many, for example, had not heard the now familiar figure for those in the sustainability world that China used more cement in 2011-2013 than the USA used in the whole of the c.20th – a figure I always use to help groups focus their minds on the data and approaches that I talk about. But I could not help getting very angry when I heard Ed Glaeser (Harvard Professor and author of the influential neoliberal text The Triumph of the City) repeat once again his singular message that cities have always been good for economic growth and always will, without a single hint that proven predictions of climate science and many other branches of sustainability science fundamentally contradict his hyper-optimistic ultra-modernism. With his bow tie and aggressive male style, he really does not seem to have come to terms with the dynamics and intellectual cultures of the c.21st. Sue Parnell from South Africa, who was the discussant of his contribution, gently tried to suggest this.

As an African, the Urban Age conference seemed to reinforce what I often feel at these international events – a sense that I’m invisible because none of the stories seem to be about where I come from (despite talks by Africans). Talking the next day at a cafe on San Marco’s Square to a young Ethiopian architect (who lives with her husband in Switzerland), we discussed Ben Okri’s novel Astonishing the Gods which is about a young man growing up somewhere in Africa who reaches the conclusion he must be invisible because none of the stories he sees and reads all around him are about him. It’s almost impossible to articulate what’s missing because in some ways the African stories have yet to be told in these kinds of fora. But feeling the same absence after walking through the exhibits of the Venice Biennale, I found myself telling the Ethiopian architect the story of the 10 minute film that Edgar Pieter, Tau Tavenga and I assembled for the Rotterdam Biennale – I promised to send her the link because, I said, it captured for me one of the more successful attempts at expressing what is almost inexpressibly specific about so many African cities that defy the analytical categories of mainstream urban studies. The good news is that the next Urban Age will be somewhere in Africa. Hope that allows for a better engagement with a continent where 800 million more people are expected to be living in urban settlements by 2050. Indeed, as one of the most renowned chroniclers of African urbanism, Abdou-Maliq Simone, made clear in his talk: what it means to be urban for those who live in Africa’s teaming informal settlements may be very different to what we who attend Urban Age conferences assume this to mean. And yet, as in Okri’s novel, what we sense may still be invisible, and may in fact still need to find its own way of expressing itself. As the Ethiopian architect sipped her latte gazing onto the famous urban square in the world, she told me of her dream of publishing a book on Ethiopia’s vernacular architectural traditions. Inspired, we agreed below the iconic clock tower on San Marco’s to make a pact to ensure she finds a way to tell this story.

John van Breda from the Centre for Complex Systems in Transition and I have worked for ten years now to develop a unique approach to transdisciplinary research that is appropriate for our African context. As he brings his Phd to a close, all this work is now being consolidated in to journal publications and conference presentations. Recently John presented this work at a conference in Brazil. Below are his notes:

From John van Breda:

I was invited by the Institute of Advanced Transdisciplinary Studies (IEAT) at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG) in Belo Horizonte (Brazil) to give a keynote address on 10 June at an international BRICS symposium. The title of my talk was “Transdisciplinarity – creating new research opportunities for collaboration”. Leading up to this keynote address I also participated in two other related events, an informal discussion with a group of interested academics on Monday 6 June as well as another formal presentation and panel discussion hosted by the Faculty of Education on Tuesday 7 June. In all three of these talks I shared with them our understanding and approach of doing practical, solution-oriented transdisciplinary research that we have developed over the last ten years at Stellenbosch University, with special emphasis and reference to what we have learnt in the Enkanini case study over the last five years. These talks were not only extremely well received, but it also illustrated the different approaches that we have developed at our respective universities. In their own words, they said that it was clear that, by comparison to our empirical case study approach, they have followed more of an interdisciplinary approach, because they have not really ventured beyond the boundaries of academia by engaging with social actors on real-world, societal challenges. They therefore found our approach to transdisciplinary research not only refreshing and innovative, but also very appropriate for the developing world context in which they find themselves. Their interest in our work was very positive indeed, indicating a strong willingness to collaborate closely with us in the future, possibly starting with another longer visit to them again in 2017 with a view to co-hosting a TD Summer or Winter School and also assisting them in initiating a first transdisciplinary case study around either water- or soil-related challenges they are facing in their part of the world. This would certainly be the first of this kind of collaboration amongst the BRICS members that met at this conference, and the hope would be that this might lead to further similar initiatives within this emerging network of countries.

Blake Robinson, who heads up SI Projects, recently presented our work on the resource requirements of future urbanization (REFURB) at the World Resources Forum in Cost Rica. Herewith his notes about the experience:

From Blake Robinson:

I was recently invited by UNEP to present on our team’s urban resource work at the World Resources Forum’s Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) conference, which was held in conjunction with the annual International Sustainable Building Congress in San Jose, Costa Rica. The event was organised by the Green Building Council of Costa Rica, the World Resources Forum and UNEP, and brought together experts from different backgrounds to discuss sustainable cities and lifestyles in Latin America and the Caribbean. On Wednesday 18 May, I presented alongside Mauricio Leon from the University of Minnesota and Marije van Lidth de Jeude and Oliver Schuette from A-01 at a workshop entitled “Understanding the metabolism of cities: opportunities for city-level decoupling”. My presentation, entitled “Urban Resource Flows and the Governance of Infrastructure Transitions“, provided a summary of the City-level Decoupling report that was done for the IRP and an overview of our progress to date on its successor, the Refurb report (both commissioned by the International Resource Panel). It was my first presentation to a LAC audience, and I was encouraged by their interest in the content which a number of participants commented on as being fresh and of relevance to their contexts.  I also presented the “GI-REC Resource Efficiency Toolkit” on Friday 20 May at an expert meeting organised by UNEP entitled “Life Cycle Thinking and urban metabolism in cities: opportunities and linkages”. Following other presentations by experts in life cycle assessment – Jim Fava from Thinkstep, Arnold Tukker from Leiden University and Mauricio Leon from UMN – we broke into group discussions about LCA, the draft GI-REC toolkit and its applicability to cities. Although the toolkit did not explicitly include LCA, I was pleased to observe that the logic of our approach is congruent with LCA and other approaches to urban resource assessment, and I appreciated the acknowledgement from some of the top experts in the field that the draft toolkit that we have been developing since 2013 is on the right track.

It was a privilege to represent our team from the southern tip of Africa at such a prestigious event in such a beautiful location on the other side of the globe. Costa Rica is in many ways a paradise on earth, and we have a lot to learn from their peaceful way of life, high adult literacy rates and institutionalised respect for nature. On a professional level, it was rewarding to receive affirmation that what we are working on is meaningful and relevant to multiple contexts. This was evident in the host city San Jose, which experiences a number of similar challenges to South African cities due to its urban form. I really enjoyed interacting with participants from a great diversity of countries, and (although I need to work on my Spanish) I look forward to further engagement with them in future.

United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) in partnership with Metropolis (World Association of the Major Metropolises) have hosted a strategic discussion here in the old beautiful city of Barcelona to discuss the compilation of a position document for presentation at Habitat III in Quito in October. Very interesting tension between traditional neo-libera tropes on local economic development/competitive cities and more progressive conceptions of collaboration, learning through sharing, redistribution and equality. Sustainability tends to be understood through a carbon lens, but there is real interest in the resource consumption perspective that I spoke about. As always, I find the ultra-diverse world of local government dynamics incredibly stimulating, and I must appreciate the French and Spanish preference for complexity to the Anglo-Saxon predilection for reductionism, especially when the latter defaults to market fundamentalism. Edgar Pieterse and I are drafting the conclusion to this document, which is based on three base reports on Metropolises, Intermediate Cities and Regions written mainly by people located in the global North (which means few examples come from our context). My old friend Billy Cobbett from high school and PLANACT days is here – he heads up Cities Alliance based in Brussels. Having Mayors and local government officials from various parts of the world as part of the discussion is refreshing.

On Thursday 30th I delivered a lecture at the Centre for Agroecology Water and Resilience (CAWR) at the University of Coventry (UC). Talk was entitled Transdisciplinary Research for Transformation in an African Context.  I was invited by Michel Pimbert, the DIrector of CAWR. Wow, what an inspiring experience. A year and a half ago CAWR had 10 staff, now it has 80! This makes it one of the largest centres focussed on agroecological issues in the world, certainly in Europe. This is the result of a visionary strategy by the leadership of UC to invest heavily in a new generation of research institutes that are designed to position UC as an internationally leading University. It is very ambitious and could well pay off. Michel has appointed a truly diverse team, who share a commitment to agroecological approaches. They are also very interested in transdisciplinary research, in particular our approach. They have also recruited a good bunch of doctoral students, some of who have extensive experience in their respective fields (e.g. Miche Fabre-Lewin who I met in Stellenbosch in December with her collaborator Flora Gathorne-Hardy and who starts at residency at the Sustainability Institute in August). My talk was my first attempt to present our work on TD that has evolved over the past ten years – my colleague John van Breda usually presents this work. It was a truly great experience to present this work myself, and especially to this impressive progressive group of committed scholars. A MOU will be signed between CAWR/CU and CST/SU in the coming weeks which I hope is the start of a long-term collaboration. It will provide, in particular, a supportive network for our food systems research group in CST.

For ppt download: Coventry2