The City of Joburg is calling on scholars, designers, planners, historians, and writers to submit papers on ‘Public Space and Placemaking in African Cities’ as part of an initiative to establish the Centre of African Public Spaces (CAPS).
Initiated by the municipality through Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo and the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA) in collaboration with peer African cities, universities, and community advocacy groups – CAPS is tailored to preserve institutional and Indigenous knowledge. Collaborating with all stakeholders on a range of networks and specialised thematic content, CAPS will be a knowledge exchange repository for a large professional community.
City Parks and Zoo’s General Manager for Corporate Research and Knowledge Management, Ayanda Roji says CAPS is a platform for academics to contribute to the City’s knowledge hub by submitting their critical and innovative contributions.
“As a continent grappling with many challenges including rapid urbanisation, rising inequality and climate change, it is important to re-imagine cities and pinpoint changes taking place on the continent at large. On the backdrop of locating and identifying such changes the City has partnered with the Journal of Public Space to dedicate an issue on African Public Spaces,” Roji explains.
It’s hoped this will aid understanding of meanings and practices in plural and diverse African spaces, contexts, climates, regional and local scales, and histories.
Roji notes that public spaces are defined beyond parks and green spaces. They include open and closed public amenities such as streets, transport interchanges, markets, community halls, libraries, squares, places of worship, and more.
People interested in submitting papers should note that both full research articles with a maximum of 8 000 words and shorter essays, case studies and photo essays with a maximum of 3 000 words will be accepted.
“Writers are thus invited to submit reflections related to cities and public spaces on the African continent. The City of Joburg from different departments and entities can reflect on its experience, document its work as case studies or write viewpoints on a number of issues the municipality is grappling with,” she adds.
The first submission date for full papers is Tuesday, 1 March 2022; thereafter comments from peer reviewers will be sent to all authors by Sunday, 10 April.
The final submission date for publication is Saturday, 30 April. The expected publication date of all papers is June, where CAPS will be launched at the 11th World Urban Forum in Katowice, southern Poland between Sunday, 26 and Thursday, 30 June 2022.
Roji says the Centre of African Public Spaces aims to advance the field by serving as a conduit of accessing content on public space. This is expected to give impulse to African cities to learn from each other, develop the definition and meaning of African public spaces while advocating and facilitating the filling of current gaps in research and teaching, skills, and publication.
“From the outset, this initiative aims to take on a wider pan African outlook – seeking to understand and reimagine the continent,” she notes.
Written by Sascha-Lee Joseph
16/02/2022