ACHTUNG PROGRAMMÄNDERUNG: Steve Ouma Akoth: Southern Urbanism and Co-production in Urban Spaces

AUS PERSÖNLICHEN GRÜNDEN KANN DER VORTRAG VON COLIN MCFARLANE NICHT STATTFINDEN. STATTDESSEN SPRICHT STEVE OUMA AKOTH.

In his lecture Steve Ouma Akoth presents his ongoing collaborative research project with fellow anthropologist Thomas Asher of the Colombia University on Southern Urbanism. This “new urbanism” concept also prompts a rethinking of how knowledge, data, and interventions flow between cities in the North and South. 

He states, that this sharing of ideas should not skew only towards movement in one direction, but as an equal exchange between both the global north and global south and that we ought to recognize the processes and interventions that exist within communities, not merely as discoveries by researchers within well-resourced universities and research centers, but as innovations by actors embedded within local urban fabrics.

Steve Ouma Akoth argues, that the idea of co-production is much more about re-balancing power asymmetries that move the now essentialist policy prescription of public participation. Responding to power requires action that moves beyond the bureaucratic policy processes. It starts by recognizing the life experiences and innovations of the city.
This approach confronts elements of hidden power and engages with material experience, power, and epistemology. The outcome of co-production in the context of Africa urban life is form urbanism that moves beyond the colonial and colonized subject who confronts and is confronted by an urban built environment that has contextualized social functions. 

Dr. Steve Ouma Akoth is a Kenyan scholar, advisor and activist in the field of human rights and social anthropology with over 15 years working in diverse international, regional and national fora. He is a former ACLS scholar. He grew up in Korogocho slums of Eastern Nairobi and was educated at Moi University, Eldoret, Kenya and The University of the Western Cape South Africa where he obtained his PH.D. He was the Executive Director of Pamoja Trust (www.pamojatrust.org) for eight years and currently a faculty members at the Kenyatta University where he teaches Human Development. His areas of ongoing research touch on culture and the constitution, Multiple Justice Systems, and minoritarian urban modernity.

Vortrag in englischer Sprache.

Eine Kooperation des Städtebau-Institut und des IZKT der Universität Stuttgart mit TRIALOG e.V. und dem Hospitalhof.

(ursprünglich angekündigter Vortrag:

Colin McFarlane, Autor des Buches „Learning the City: Knowledge and Translocal Assemblage“ betrachtet kollektive Lernprozesse in der Stadt aus internationaler Perspektive: Wie wird Wissen erzeugt, das möglichst viele Menschen ermächtigt, auf die Entwicklung ihrer Stadt wirklich Einfluss zu nehmen? Wie funktionieren Lerntaktiken in der Stadt - auch in Kontexten, die durch eine extreme Ungleichheit der Lebensverhältnisse gekennzeichnet sind? Nicht zuletzt: Was bedeuten „Ko-Produktion“ von Wissen und kooperative Stadtgestaltung für die Planungspraxis?

Prof. Dr. Colin McFarlane ist Stadtforscher an der Durham University, Großbritannien.
Sein Vortrag eröffnet die Jahrestagung "Whose knowledge counts? The meaning of co-productive processes for urban development and urban research“ von TRIALOG e.V., einem Zusammenschluss von Fachleuten aus Wissenschaft, Lehre, Beratung und Praxis im Bereich des Planens und Bauens im globalen Kontext.)