Spaces4fututre

Societies in Southern Africa are in the process of a major transition from rural to urban-based societies (Bickford-Smith 2016; Pieterse/Parnell 2014). These developments increase the already existing challenges in the provision of urban infrastructure, transportation, social services and housing. The situation furthermore raises questions with regard to the development of social and spatial inequalities that follow in the wake of the expansion of urban centers (Pieterse/Parnell 2014; Obrist et al. 2013; Myers 2011).

Moreover, land reforms to overcome the strains of apartheid and colonialism and to address its spatial structures of inequality remain one of the most pressing issues in Southern Africa. The land question in Southern Africa cannot be reduced to agrarian change or production (du Toit 2018) as it is politically re-formulated as a question of belonging, citizenship and indigeneity (Koot/Hitchcock/Gressier 2019). The unresolved land question in rural and urban spaces in Southern Africa significantly has an impact on societies' capacities for cohesion or severe social conflict (e.g. Melber 2019; Aliber/Cousins 2013; Sapignoli/Hitchcock 2013; Anseeuv/Alden 2010).

The summer school Spaces for Future: Processes of Rural and Urban Transformation in Southern Africa will be held on 21st to 25th of February, 2022. Spaces for Future is a joint project by Justus-Liebig-University Gießen, the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) and University of Vienna, funded by the VolkswagenStiftung.

The summer school’s goal is to offer an interdisciplinary space for researchers coming from the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences in order to discuss the future aspiration to transform rural-urban relations in Southern Africa with a particular focus on the impact of migration and climate change.

While research mostly either focuses on rural or urban challenges, the summer school seeks to combine rural and urban studies for a new understanding by highlighting the connectivity, linkages, and circulation processes between urban and rural transformation and future aspiration from a Southern perspective and how they have become ingrained in Southern African societies in history and over longer time periods.

The summer school also seeks to include a perspective on the agents of transformation (social movements and civil society) and their social, cultural  political mobility, as they are developing imaginations for the future and offering guidance on how to cope with emerging challenges.

Besides addressing a relevant societal issue, the summer school's aim is to make a contribution to the further qualification of young researchers from Africa.

In sum, Spaces for Future will

• provide a platform for early career researchers, especially if based at universities in Africa, who are interested in the field of rural-urban transformation. Not only will this format give early career researchers the opportunity to present and discuss their research with peers but further develop and enhance their research in method and content with the support of experienced senior researchers;
• facilitate an interdisciplinary as well as international academic engagement and discussion;
• generate knowledge through the novel approach of combining rural and urban perspectives in thinking about societal transformations;
• be made accessible to a wider academic audience through the publication of a journal and/or a book publication;
• generate exciting and edifying presentations and discussions, both as part of the keynote addresses, panel debates, workshops and research talks.

Literature                                                                                        

Aliber, M./Cousins, B. (2013): Livelihoods after Land Reform in South Africa, in: Journal of Agrarian Change, 13 (1), pp. 140–165.

Anseeuv, W./Alden, C. (eds.) (2010): The Struggle over Land in Africa. Conflicts, Politics & Change. Cape Town: HSRC Press.

Bickford-Smith, V. (2016): The Emergence of the South African Metropolis. Cities and Identities in the Twentieth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Du Toit, Andries (2018): Without the blanket of the land: agrarian change and biopolitics in post–Apartheid South Africa, in: The Journal of Peasant Studies, 45 (2), pp. 1086-1107.

Koot, S./Hitchcock, R./Gressier, C. (2019): Belonging, Indigeneity, Land and Nature in Southern Africa under Neoliberal Capitalism: An Overview, in: Journal of Southern African Studies, 45(2), pp. 341-355.

Melber, H. (2019): Colonialism, Land, and Class: Namibia after the Second National Land Conference, in: Africa Spectrum, 54 (1), pp. 73–86.

Myers, G. (2011): African Cities. Alternative Visions of Urban Theory and Practice. New York: Zed Books.

Obrist, B./Arlt, V./Macamo, E. (eds.) (2013): Living the City in Africa. Basel: Schweizerische Afrikastudien.

Pieterse, E./Parnell, S. (2014): Africa's Urban Revolution. New York: Zed Books.              

Sapignoli, M./Hitchcock, R. K. (2013): Development and dispossession: impacts of land reform in             Botswana, in: Evers, S. J.T.M./Seagle, C./Krijtenburg, F. (eds.): Africa for Sale? Positioning the State, Land and Society in Foreign Large-Scale Land Acquisitions in Africa. Leiden & Boston: Brill, pp. 131-158.