Pluralizing UPE in a World of Cities: 10 Papers @ DOPE session, Kentucky, Feb 2014
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Pluralizing UPE in a World of Cities: 10 Papers @ DOPE session, Kentucky, Feb 2014

We are very glad to have 10 papers from across the world for our special session on “Pluralizing Urban Political Ecology in a World of Cities” at DOPE 2014. DOPE is The Dimensions of Political Ecology Conference in Lexington, KY, February 27 – March 1. The session will gather in-depth case studies with theoretical conversations, from Jakarta, Teheran, Bangalore to […]

Infrastructural ideals across African cities
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Infrastructural ideals across African cities

In this commentary Sophie Schramm explains her new research  with Jochen Monstadt on the infrastructural ideal in African cities Translating urban infrastructure ideals and planning models: adaptation and creativity in water and sanitation systems in African cities. The research project is part of a wider programme that focuses on the transfer and thereby translation of […]

Its time to pay the climate debt: Financing a low carbon urban Africa
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Its time to pay the climate debt: Financing a low carbon urban Africa

 Jonathan Silver argues that carbon financing for cities is flawed and is failing to support urban Africa in addressing climate change and development imperatives. At the recent ICLEI Local Climate Solutions conference in Dar es Salaam the Vice President of Tanzania, Mohamed Gharib Bilal addressed the assembled participants at the opening plenary. He argued that […]

Boda-Boda! Rethinking Unregulated Urban Transport in the Global South
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Boda-Boda! Rethinking Unregulated Urban Transport in the Global South

James Evans focuses on boda-boda motorcycle taxis in Uganda to ask how current thinking in Geography might help us re-think the role of informal transport in achieving more inclusive and sustainable urban development. This is of crucial concern as unregulated transport is vital to billions living with poor road access in the Global South, yet […]

Notes from a Pretoria classroom: What is a city?
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Notes from a Pretoria classroom: What is a city?

The first time I realised there was something funny going on was when we were discussing shebeens- informal drinking spaces usually found in townships.  I asked my students “where do you find shebeens” and they answered “in the rural areas”. It threw me.  In the moment, I didn’t realise what they meant, but figured the students […]

SUPE organizes row of special sessions in 2014 on “Pluralizing Urban Political Ecology” – First at DOPE in Lexington
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SUPE organizes row of special sessions in 2014 on “Pluralizing Urban Political Ecology” – First at DOPE in Lexington

During 2014 we are organizing a series of special sessions on “Pluralizing the Approaches to Urban Political Ecology in a ‘World of Cities’”. The aim is to discuss how we in the coming decade can create a broad and rich repertoire for unpacking urban political ecologies in a ‘world of cities’ that can handle and take […]

Waste management and climate financing in Mbale
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Waste management and climate financing in Mbale

During November Jonathan Silver will be undertaking new research as part of his role in the LSE Cities ‘Urban Uncertainty‘ project. Below he gives a brief commentary of the work. This work aims to examine the challenge of securing the necessary financing for infrastructure investment in small- and medium-sized cities, such as Mbale, Uganda. Since […]

Notes from a Pretoria classroom
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Notes from a Pretoria classroom

Mary Lawhon teaches urban geography at University of Pretoria. In this first of a mini-series of commentaries Mary reflects on the experience of teaching her first undergraduate module. I’m in the middle of teaching my first urban geography course in the global South.  I inherited half of the 14 week class too late to change […]

New Antipode article on Situated Urban Political Ecologies
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New Antipode article on Situated Urban Political Ecologies

Rethinking urban ecologies of the global South We’ve have just published a new article in the geography journal Antipode on “Provincializing Urban Political Ecology: Towards a Situated UPE Through African Urbanism“. In this article we argue that the ecologies being shaped through the new and rapidly emergent forms of urbanization that we witness in the global South […]

Staging difference at Princess Vlei. “You can bet they struck a deal at the vlei” (Part 1)
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Staging difference at Princess Vlei. “You can bet they struck a deal at the vlei” (Part 1)

Henrik Ernstson takes a look at a cultural mobilization against a backdrop of contestation in one part of Cape Town. This Saturday, on September 28, 2013, Emile YX? and his multiple crews of dancers and rappers will again mobilize to stop a shopping mall from being built at Princess Vlei, a park and wetland in […]