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SUMMARY:African Dreams
DTSTART:20150914T173000
DTEND:20150914T190000
DTSTAMP:20260429T121511Z
UID:1465cbf74f9b1576a506cfc87b6ce7683828608e46c4f9fc5b1ea23b
CATEGORIES:Inaugural lectures - Honorary Lecture
DESCRIPTION:Prof. Susan Parnell - University of Cape Town\nLocating urban 
 life and infrastructure in the post 2015 development agenda\nThe recent gr
 owth of rich empirical work based on diverse conceptual\, disciplinary and
  ideological entry points into the study of African infrastructure and ser
 vices has been hugely significant in stimulating a reimagining of the cont
 inent that is focused on its urban spaces\, experiences and connections. H
 owever\, with the United Nations (UN) finalising the post 2015 agenda (inc
 luding a new urban Sustainable Development Goal\, the High Level Panel on 
 Finance for Development and the forthcoming Habitat 111 (the global proces
 s to agree a new human settlement agenda) in 2016\, it is the policy delib
 erations not conventional scholarship that that are likely to be immediate
 ly formative of Africa’s new urban imaginary. Rather than academics bemo
 aning their lack of policy impact\, we suggest that it is important for sc
 holars to engage global urban policy making\, probing where and how to aug
 ment and refine what is clearly a path-breaking moment in how development 
 on the continent is understood and how the life in the African metropolis 
 is perceived. To interrogate these urban spaces of engagement we begin by 
 briefly setting out interdisciplinary advances that have already been put 
 forward by infrastructure and service studies in Africa and which align wi
 th the overarching SDG logic. This is followed by an examination of the ra
 pidly shifting global policy environment\, first with respect for the Afri
 can Union’s overarching ambitions for the continent and then\, drilling 
 down\, to a consideration of Africa’s positioning on infrastructure viz.
  Habitat 111. This approach\, of fusing the findings and modes of investig
 ation born of the academic and policy literatures\, is what we have argued
  elsewhere will enrich not only an Afro-centric understanding of the urban
  transition\, but will bring the urban realities of Africa closer to the f
 orefront of global urban theorising.
LOCATION:BM 5202 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==BM%205202
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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