"Faces of the City" series: Is this our future (2)? Further learning from São Paulo

Dear All,

Please join us for a seminar in the current "Faces of the City" series.

Date: Tuesday, 30 August 2011
Time:  16h00 – 18h00 
Venue: First Floor Seminar Room, John Moffat Building, Wits East Campus.

Alan Mabin (Professor at the School of Architecture and Planning, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg) will be speaking on “Is this our future (2)?  Further learning from São Paulo”:

Twenty years ago, in the flush of enthusiasm for shaping a developmental and democratic path for South African cities, I had the opportunity to spend some weeks in São Paulo.  Brazil had emerged from its military dictatorship a few years earlier and a progressive mayor, Erundina of the PT, had been in office in the city of São Paulo since the first democratic municipal elections in 1988.  Exciting attempts to shift the path of city development were in train, facing enormous problems that seemed to parallel many South African challenges.
I published my response to the city in Urban Forum soon after this first visit.  In 1991 São Paulo looked very much like a possible future for Gauteng (or, as we called it in those days, the PWV).  Two decades on, ‘Sampa’ continues to provoke reflection on other cities – as cities are prone to do (Beauregard).  Its recent past especially intrigues those puzzling over the past, present and future of Gauteng, in relation to what has happened on the other side of the south Atlantic.
In 1991 my concern reflected interest in democracy and the kinds of projects which local governments determined to achieve ‘cities for all’ might initiate.  Some of the assumptions made in 1991 have proven flawed; paths have diverged and converged in multiple ways.
In this piece, I set out some of the general changes in and around Grande São Paulo and Gauteng over the past two decades, describe some divergences, and draw out some thoughts on possible directions in Gauteng.  The piece is based on work conducted over half a dozen visits to São Paulo over the years, particularly a month conducting research in June 2011.   The background includes reflections on developments in other city regions including Istanbul and Paris which I have had the opportunity to explore over the past year or more.
 

RSVP:  Zakiyyah.ayob@wits.ac.za.

Hope to see you there!

Zakiyyah Ayob
Programme Administrator
NRF: SARChI
Development Planning and Modelling
School of Architecture and Planning
University of the Witwatersrand
Tel: 011 717 7642
Fax: 011 717 7624
E-mail: zakiyyah.ayob@wits.ac.za