Considering planning approaches in the global south and learning from co-production in South Africa’s informal backyard rental sector
Abstract
The global South has traditionally been regarded as oppressed and subjugated, grappling to reach
western ideals on the appropriate, desirable and modern. However, framing the developing world as
such, fails to recognise that western norms may be neither feasible nor appropriate in these regions and
discounts the value of alternative, mostly informal, approaches to provide outcomes more suited to the
global South status quo. This paper aims to showcase how western standards and development
mechanisms are still propagated in the developing world and how local populations adapt to the
outcomes of such approaches to suit their needs and circumstances, in the process challenging western
norms and shaping the city from below. The paper employs a qualitative research methodology based
on a literature review of core concepts, including: the right to the city, spatial justice, co-production,
modernism and neoliberalism; before turning to a case study of South Africa and its informal backyard
rental sector to explore research objectives. The subsequent discussion frames the informal
backyard rental sector as an example of the interface between the formal and informal; the state and
civil society; and the global North and global South. Accordingly, presenting informal backyard rentals
as a manifestation of co-production that provides fertile ground to rethink western ideals and reframe
urban planning theory, policy-making and practice towards a more inclusive understanding based on
lived experience. The paper concludes that such reconsidered approaches may hold potential for more
sustainable and just settlements in South Africa and rest of the global South, but also for the cities of
the global North, where issues like informality are increasingly imbedded in the urban landscape
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10394/26191https://doi.org/10.2495/SC170211
https://www.witpress.com/elibrary/wit-transactions-on-ecology-and-the-environment/223/36414