City Officials Exchange Programme Round 1 completed

Round 1 of the CTLIP’s City Officials Exchange Programme is now complete, with 5 peer-reviewed journal articles published by four City of Cape Town officials.

Commencing in November 2012, 6 City officials participated in the first round of this knowledge co-production experiment in making the City’s projects and policies more legible to a wider audience. Partnered with University of Cape Town researchers and academics, the officials were granted up to 2 months sabbatical from their local government jobs, which enabled them to write about City projects and processes they had been involved in. The two months away from the City of Cape Town were spent reading literature and drafting their urban policy related experiences into journal articles, ready for submission to peer-reviewed academic journals. The writing process was further supported by co-ordinator of the City Officials Exchange Programme Pippin Anderson (University of Cape Town) and Lucia Thesen (Centre for Higher Education Development, University of Cape Town), who together co-designed a workshop programme to navigate the writing and publication process. An official noted that he “…found it empowering to be up-to-date on the latest literature”, while a writing partner reflected that this programme offers City officials “… an opportunity for their work to be valued, and to reflect on their work and capture this tangibly”. The writing partner noted too that “the enthusiasm and dedication [her writing partner] afforded to the drafting of [their] paper was energizing and inspiring”.

The officials and writing partners of Round 1 include:

* Wilmot Arendse (Social Development and Early Childhood Development department, City of Cape Town) and Zarina Patel (African Centre for Cities and Environmental and Geographical Science, University of Cape Town)

Arendse, W. And Patel, Z. 2014. ‘No messing in Bonteheuwel’: Tracing the transition to a virtuous cycle of community development, Town and Regional Planning, 65: 1-11.

* Darryl Colenbrander (Environmental Resource Management department, City of Cape Town) and Merle Sowman (Environmental and Geographical Science, University of Cape Town)

Colenbrander, D. and Sowman, M. 2015. Merging socioeconomic imperatives with geospatial data: A non-negotiable for coastal risk management in South Africa, Coastal Management, 43: 270-300.

* Ken Sinclair-Smith (Water and Sanitation Department, formerly Spatial Planning and Urban Design department, City of Cape Town) and Owen Crankshaw (Department of Sociology, University of Cape Town

Sinclair-Smith, K. 2014. Methods and considerations for determining urban growth boundaries – an evaluation of the Cape Town experience, Urban Forum, 25(3): 313-333.

Sinclair-Smith, K. 2015. Polycentric development in the Cape Town city-region: Empirical assessment and consideration of spatial policy implications,  Development Southern Africa, 32(2): 131-150.

* Lorryn Steenkamp (Spatial Planning and Urban Design department, City of Cape Town) and Tanja Winkler (School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics, University of Cape Town)

Steenkamp, L. and Winkler, T. 2014. Linking spatial planning and land use management in the City of Cape Town: The case of the Package of Plans, Urban Forum, 25: 335-353.

Round 2 of the programme had 6 City Officials writing at UCT. The majority of papers are in the process of being published. The third and final round of the exchange programme is currently underway, with 8 City Officials working with academic partners to co-produce a book on Urban Development and Climate Change in Cape Town.

Read more

Knowledge Transfer Programme 
Climate Change Think Tank  
Climate Change at the City Scale: Impacts, Mitigation and Adaptation in Cape Town (previous book from the Cape Town Climate Change Think Tank)