HUMA Book L(u)nch

Author: Nancy Odendaal (African Center for Cities, University of Cape Town, South Africa)

Introduction

Nancy Odendaal is a Professor in the School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics, at the University of Cape Town. She is also the current Head of the school. Nancy trained as an urban planner and developed a keen interest in contemporary cities very early in her career, focusing primarily on the relationship between urban infrastructure, spatial transformation, and livelihoods. Her recent research has focused on smart urbanism and its manifestation in African cities. Nancy is engaged in a number of networks in Africa and internationally: she is the past chair of the Association of African Planning Schools, as well as the Global Planning Education Associations Network, and currently is a member of the review committee for the Swiss National Science Foundation’s SPIRIT programme.

About the book: 

See the book: Disrupted Urbanism - Situated Smart Initiatives in African Cities  (Bristol University Press, 2023) 
Open Access chapter:
https://bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/display/book/9781529218596/ch005.xml

The ‘smart city’ is often promoted as a technology-driven solution to complex urban issues. While commentators are increasingly critical of techno-optimistic narratives, the political imagination is dominated by claims that technical solutions can be uniformly applied to intractable problems. This book provides a much-needed alternative view, exploring how ‘home-grown’ digital disruption, driven and initiated by local actors, upends the mainstream corporate narrative. Drawing on original research conducted in a range of urban African settings, Odendaal shows how these initiatives can lead to meaningful change. This is a valuable resource for scholars working in the intersection of science and technology studies, urban and economic geography and sociology.

More about the HUMA Book Lunch Series

Lunch will be served at 12:30 SAST (GMT+2).

Register to attend: send us an email at huma@uct.ac.za

Attending online? Register to join via Zoom: 
https://uct-za.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEpdOuhrD0jE9UHTDgZNHYrbGandbv3spUc

See Google Maps for directions