How can Cape Town be put onto a growth path towards becoming a unique city which is inclusive, vibrant and sustainable?

This is the question posed in Counter-Currents: Experiments in sustainability in the Cape Town Region, a new critique, published by Jacana Publishers, on the city’s urban growth.

Counter-Currents, which is edited by Edgar Pieterse, and which includes chapters by a range of contributors, looks at what factors create real change in a city and how citizens imagine the change coming about.

“Cape Town is undergoing a growth spurt driven along by both public and private sector investments. In the process, a new city is being fashioned in front of our eyes but there are very few book length perspectives on the direction and meaning of this growth,” say the publishers.

“Counter-Currents represents both a critique of unimaginative urban growth and a showcase of bold urban development initiatives by both the state and the private sector with the aim of shifting public ideas and discourses about the kind of Cape Town we should be imagining and nurturing.”

A range of prominent contributors look at ways of putting Cape Town onto a unique and culturally resonant growth path which is vital for creating a more inclusive and sustainable city on the southern tip of Africa.

Chapters include:

• Reflections on Leadership and Governance in Cape Town – David Schmidt
• Jane Alexander: Hunger Artist – Ashraf Jamal
• The Right to the City – Abdoumaliq Simone
• Karen Press
• The Cape Town 2030 Initiative: A contested vision of the future – Stephen Boshoff
• Towards Urban Infrastructure Sustainability – Wendy Crane, Mark Swilling, Lisa Thompson-Smeddle, Martin de Witt
• Public Transport: Tackling Cape Town’s Achilles Heel – Herrie Schalekamp
• Making Public Space in 21st Century Cape Town: An idealistic planning construct or a catalytic city building project? – Barbara Southworth
• Cape Town Central City Strategy – Andrew Boraine
• District Six Development Framework: Prospects for urban and social sustainability – Lucien le Grange
• Oude Molen: Imagining sustainable human settlements – Nisa Mammon
• Kosovo Informal Settlement Upgrade: Sustainability towards dignified communities – Mokena Makeka
• An Experiment in Public Housing – Luyanda Mpahlwa
• Photo-Essay: Social Integration in Cape Town – Tau Tavengwa
• Nurturing Creativity: The Spier experiment – Tanner Methvin
• A Development Plan for Paardvlei, Somerset West – Dave Dewar & Piet Louw
• Space & Transformation: Reflections on the new WCED schools program – Iain Low
• Regionalism and Sustainability – Sue Parnell & Greg Clarke
• Dealing with Sustainability – Mark Swilling
• Why Transformative Change is so Elusive: A conversation – Edgar Pieterse, Mokena Mokekwa, Mark Swilling, Gita Goven, Andrew Boraine, Catherine Stone and David Schmidt
• Conclusion: Re-imagining Cape Town through the rebus of identity, economy and ecology – Edgar Pieterse

“Don’t miss this important public-policy read: your future may depend on it!” say the publishers. For sales enquiries, contact Nteseng Thoane on 011 628 3222 or email nteseng@jacana.co.za

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