Challenges of University–City Relationships: Reflections from South Africa

This paper explores practices in ‘doing urban research, teaching and public engagement differently’, including initiatives at several institutions in different South African cities (Fort Hare in East London, Western Cape in Cape Town, Nelson Mandela in Gqeberha, Pretoria in Tshwane and Witwatersrand in Johannesburg) to forge new connections and play new roles as urban actors. Considering pedagogies, methodologies and deliberative forms, it is also concerned with institutional relationships between universities, city governments and other organisations. The purpose of the paper is to examine the challenges that face those who seek to bring institutional (and physical) relationships closer together, with illustrations from often contradictory projects and results. Human and network relationships form a key element of the context. The paper necessarily engages with varied understandings of the public role of universities. It seeks to identify factors that support success for innovative approaches and tactics within universities and beyond.

Sources of the paper include participation in practices at Wits on the part of the author (starting in 1980s Mabin 1984), secondary material (reports on relevant initiatives e.g. Bank et al. 2018, Oldfield et al. 2019, https://www.chrflagship.uwc.ac.za/the-way-to-greatmore/, https://www.mistraurbanfutures.org/en/project/citylab-programme), and select interviews. The paper intends to provide an informed account of developments in university–city relationships and to link that to wider questions on the general subject, claiming neither a definitive account nor conclusions that might be generalised but which may provoke further reflection.

Bank, Leslie, Nico Cloete and François van Schalkwyk (eds) (2018) Anchored in Place: Rethinking the University and Development in South Africa (Cape Town: African Minds)

Mabin, Alan (1984) WEJGE: the genesis of an exploration in urban learning, South African Geographer 12 (1) 69-79

Sophie Oldfield and Alma Viviers (eds.) 2019 Building Houses Bit by Bit: The Stories of Hazeldene – Ekupumleni (African Centre for Cities, UCT)