Practices of the State in Urban Governance
An international workshop on the practices of the state in urban governance
As part of Wits University — School of Architecture and Planning’s “Practices of the State in Urban Governance” project, the Centre for Urbanism and Built Environment Studies (CUBES) will host an international three-day workshop to consolidate the key findings of the programme.
6-8 June | University of the Witwatersrand
- 6 June
8.30 to 19.30 | Seminar Room, Humanities Graduate Centre
- 7 June
9.00 to 18.00 | Seminar Room, Humanities Graduate Centre
- 8 June
9.00 to 13.00 | Basement A4, John Moffat Building
Themes
To understand state practices through the lens of urban change, international and South African scholars who have inspired or engaged with the theme of the programme will debate the main threads:
- Theme 1: State-society encounters in the city – what do we learn about the state and its practices in the city, through these encounters?
- Driving change from outside the state? Beyond or besides contentious politics
- The politics of intermediation: Mediators, the poor and policy change
- Twilight institutions – expanding or undermining the state in urban governance
- Theme 2: State officials practices in the city – straddling agency and structure
- Unpacking officials’ practices in the city of the South
- “Activists in City Hall” – a Southern view
- Theme 3: The politics of policy instruments for city making
- Policy instruments as embodiment of state rationalities
- Knowing and not knowing as modes of urban government
- Data, knowledge and the work of confusion: impeding the capacity to govern?
On the final day of the workshop there will be two roundtables on the theme ‘The politics of studying the local state’, which will address questions around researching and writing about the local state:
- Roundtable 1: Embedded or engaged research? Confronting the messiness of researching the local state
- Roundtable 2: Building a research collective on the local state
Partners
This workshop is brought to you by Wits University’s School of Architecture and Planning and Centre for Urbanism and Built Environment Studies (CUBES), the National Research Foundation (NRF), the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and IFAS-Research.