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The contamination of paper products by various chemicals has been reported on a global level, but to date, no published research has investigated pharmaceutical contamination of paper-based products. In this study, pharmaceutical analysis was conducted on 42 samples collected from various points of the recycled paper value chain in Cape Town, South Africa, which included the various grades that may be included in the manufacturing of recycled paperboard. The analysis was achieved by ultrasonic-assisted extraction of paper samples before detection by UHPLC-Q Orbitrap. Quantification limits ranged from 1.15 pg/g for ketoprofen to 46.07 pg/g for methocarbamol. Pharmaceuticals identified in newspaper samples were dexamethasone, ketoprofen, and 17β-estradiol. The latter was also detected in paper shopping bags (up to 697.49 ng/g), infant bathtub packaging (280.62 ng/g), battery packaging (137.43 ng/g), and an egg carton (170.47 ng/g). Carbamazepine was also prominent with its concentration reaching 13.02 ng/g in a vegetable box. Suspect screening tentatively identified 14 additional pharmaceuticals in paper samples, with minocycline, prazepam, and anabolic steroids appearing more prominently. This pioneering study indicated that unintentional pharmaceutical exposure had expanded beyond environmental media to consumer products. [Display omitted] • The first reported occurrence of pharmaceuticals contamination in paper samples. • Targeted and suspect screening of various paper grades was performed. • Sensitive analytical method developed using UHPLC- Q Orbitrap. • Reveals the propagation of emerging contaminants beyond environmental matrices. • Consumer usage and waste management protocols contributed to pharmaceutical occurrence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The ethical governance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in health care and public health continues to be an urgent issue for attention in policy, research, and practice. In this paper we report on central themes related to challenges and strategies for promoting ethics in research involving AI in global health, arising from the Global Forum on Bioethics in Research (GFBR), held in Cape Town, South Africa in November 2022. Methods: The GFBR is an annual meeting organized by the World Health Organization and supported by the Wellcome Trust, the US National Institutes of Health, the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) and the South African MRC. The forum aims to bring together ethicists, researchers, policymakers, research ethics committee members and other actors to engage with challenges and opportunities specifically related to research ethics. In 2022 the focus of the GFBR was "Ethics of AI in Global Health Research". The forum consisted of 6 case study presentations, 16 governance presentations, and a series of small group and large group discussions. A total of 87 participants attended the forum from 31 countries around the world, representing disciplines of bioethics, AI, health policy, health professional practice, research funding, and bioinformatics. In this paper, we highlight central insights arising from GFBR 2022. Results: We describe the significance of four thematic insights arising from the forum: (1) Appropriateness of building AI, (2) Transferability of AI systems, (3) Accountability for AI decision-making and outcomes, and (4) Individual consent. We then describe eight recommendations for governance leaders to enhance the ethical governance of AI in global health research, addressing issues such as AI impact assessments, environmental values, and fair partnerships. Conclusions: The 2022 Global Forum on Bioethics in Research illustrated several innovations in ethical governance of AI for global health research, as well as several areas in need of urgent attention internationally. This summary is intended to inform international and domestic efforts to strengthen research ethics and support the evolution of governance leadership to meet the demands of AI in global health research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Understanding the intricate relationship between energy and wellbeing in informal urban settlements is essential for developing effective interventions that address the diverse needs of residents. This paper explores this nexus through a multi-dimensional lens, examining the complexities and dynamics involved in off-grid renewable energy interventions, focusing on solar microgrids in an informal settlement in Cape Town, South Africa. Methods: The paper is based on empirical research analysed through a theoretical framework articulating the pathways through which energy insecurity influences various dimensions of wellbeing, encompassing economic, physical, social, and environmental aspects. By applying this framework to our empirical research, the paper reveals the intricate interplay between neighbourhood factors, housing conditions, social processes, and economic insecurities, shedding light on both the challenges and opportunities associated with off-grid energy interventions. Results: The understanding of wellbeing presented in the paper is based on what we term the energy-wellbeing-informality nexus. Understanding the nexus necessitates: (a) moving past universalist and technocratic understandings of wellbeing, and towards a relational and networked basis for wellbeing analysis; (b) moving beyond conventional narratives of off-grid electrification as mere technical fixes, emphasizing the importance of recognizing informal settlements as sites of innovation and experimentation; (c) understanding the multi-sectoral nature of energy-related wellbeing impacts, extending beyond energy provision to encompass broader dimensions such as education, health, and social cohesion. Discussion: The paper not only advances theoretical understanding but also offers practical insights for policymakers and practitioners. It emphasizes the need for context-sensitive policymaking that acknowledges the complexities of informal settlements and fosters innovative approaches to energy service provision. By integrating energy interventions into broader development strategies and adopting a multi-sectoral perspective, stakeholders can work towards more equitable and resilient solutions that enhance the overall wellbeing of residents in informal urban contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Newlands Rugby Stadium in Cape Town is the oldest rugby stadium in South Africa and the second oldest rugby stadium in the world. This paper explores the social and cultural consequences of the imminent demolition of the Newlands Rugby Stadium. Most research on stadia in South Africa have focused on the hosting of sports-mega events. This analysis goes beyond a descriptive examination of the tangible heritage of the stadium and focuses on the meaning and intangible heritage the stadium holds in the everyday lives of those who frequent it. With the advent of rampant commercialisation and globalisation of rugby, the Newlands Rugby Stadium itself has become expendable and a sporting space with fleeting qualities. This development highlights the importance of exploring the intangible heritage associated with this site. The study is informed by the notion of 'Topophilia' and associated heritage dynamics. This paper is based on the author's observations at the stadium during Super Rugby and Test matches, interviews with fans, and vendors, and the lived experience of going to the stadium over a ten-year period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Urban Studies (Sage Publications, Ltd.) is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Within urban studies, the emerging post-network approach explores infrastructure transitions towards hybrid mixing of grid and off-grid technologies, resources, services, and actors. However, scholarship addressing off-grid transitions in the global south focuses almost exclusively on the poor as non-networked infrastructure consumers. This paper adopts a landscape perspective to consider broader processes of technological, institutional and behavioural change. Using a case study of Day Zero in Cape Town (South Africa), the paper draws on existing studies to demonstrate how the off-grid infrastructure transitions of non-poor households and businesses have potentially catastrophic (but largely ignored) consequences for cities in terms of environmental sustainability, urban governance and citizenship, network quality, and municipal finance. The paper concludes that broadening the landscape of infrastructure analysis, to consider the off-grid infrastructure transitions of the non-poor in the global south, is crucial to address contemporary global challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Regional Science Policy & Practice is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Mass urbanisation in cities of the global South, is causing cities to evolve, with informal settlements being central to this evolution. While local government is the official point of interaction for urban informal settlement dwellers, those interactions are often characterised by a lack of meaningful participation. Engaging with the co-production literature and two case studies of informal settlements in Cape Town, South Africa, this paper examines how they shed light on the shifting and constantly evolving roles and practices of local government and community actors within a co-production engagement. Based on the findings from these cases, the paper argues that co-production as a practice of collaboration between the local state and citizens can allow for the forging of new relationships, built on trust, sharing of resources and a more equal distribution of power where communities can shape the outcomes of service delivery projects to respond to their needs and demands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing economies need to supply housing and ensure resource efficiency in the process. Industrialised construction, which increases productivity in construction, can be one means to deliver the needed housing. However, the resource efficiency of industrialised construction in developing economies is under-researched. This paper studies factors influencing resource efficiency in industrialised housing products from the perspective of value chain and environmental impact in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Nairobi, Kenya; and Cape Town, South Africa. Specifically, wall systems with varying degrees of industrialised construction implementation are studied. The study uncovers four main insights – first, the choice of materials influences the resource efficiency of industrialised wall systems; however, the current value chain does not promote the adoption of new materials. Second, products used for industrialised wall systems are imported and incur added transportation-related impacts and more. Third, industrialised construction wall systems often use lightweight materials and have the potential for disassembly; however, end users have reservations about such design strategies. Fourth, controlled production of wall systems reduces construction waste and increases the quality of products. Nevertheless, governments are currently promoting labour-intensive construction methods. Based on these insights, the paper concludes with recommendations, levers and action points for stakeholders to promote resource efficiency in industrialised construction adoption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Township tourism has become more varied, offering a wider range of products, experiences and services. In this paper, we examine residents and stakeholders' opinions on township tourism in Langa, Cape Town, South Africa; an area characterised by crime, unemployment, housing backlogs and poverty. Using a qualitative approach, this paper reports on empirical evidence conducted with key tourism stakeholders to understand some of their perceptions regarding township tourism development in Langa. Concerns about safety, poor infrastructure and a lack of interaction between tourists and the local community are raised by Langa residents and community leaders. Their dissatisfaction with tour guides and tour routes serves as a reminder of the need for more inclusive practices. While business owners are aware of the potential of tourism in promoting cross-cultural dialogue, deepening understanding and creating priceless experiences, they are constrained by perceptions of crime, a lack of tourist exposure to local establishments and the exclusion from decision-making processes. Despite these difficulties that township tourism faces, it is crucial to promote ethical tourism practices that put emphasis on genuine encounters and local community empowerment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Path-breaking transformative change is needed in human-environment relations to move towards more sustainable development trajectories at local, national and global scales. Crises may trigger transformative change and learning in the short and in the long term. However, in particular, a short-term response to crises may also be reactive, strengthening established unsustainable practices and further perpetuating vulnerability and inequality rather than supporting transformative change towards a more sustainable path. To understand the nature and response to a crisis in the context of sustainability transformations, this paper elaborates on the following aspects of a crisis: What are the characteristics of a crisis? What and who shapes the narrative(s) of a crisis? What and who shapes the nature of the response to a crisis? Do responses to crises trigger higher levels of learning? Conceptual synthesis is complemented with an exploratory comparative analysis of the Cape Town water crisis and of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa. To this end the paper analyzes the interplay between mobilizing individual, collective and relational agency and navigating and transforming power relations to challenge and profit from already weakened unsustainable structures. This approach proves to be promising to understand the role of crises in catalysing and supporting transformative learning to eventually replace unsustainable structures. ● During and immediately after crises, it is important to identify opportunities for policy change to address persistent governance failures. ● To support transformative change towards sustainability, governments typically should adopt a network governance style and act more as a convenor for deliberative processes in the later phase of the response to a crisis. ● Formation of innovation platforms bringing together actors from different levels and different roles (e.g. pioneering innovators, investors, scientists, policymakers, regulators) could support the scaling up of local initiatives and innovative approaches that have been developed during crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper undertakes a comparative analysis of Coloured gangs in Cape Town, South Africa, and Indigenous gangs in Canadian Prairie cities—Calgary, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, and others—looking at how members of each engage in street culture. It finds that street cultural participation in both settings is largely a collective response to globally recognizable—yet locally articulated—experiences with joblessness, over-incarceration, racialized poverty, and other forms of structural oppression. The paper uses life history research that was conducted with a sample of 24 gang members in South Africa and with another 53 from cities in Canada. Overall research findings are focused through the individual stories of Gavin and Roddy—research participants from Cape Town and Winnipeg, respectively—to provide personal and contextualized representations of broader key street cultural concepts and processes in each setting. The paper adds to a growing body of gang literature that draws comparisons across national contexts to show how street cultures are similarly used in an attempt to counteract experiences with vulnerability, exclusion, and alienation within distinct cultural contexts, socioeconomic situations, and colonial legacies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A lot has changed in the global machine of international development since its inception, but the language of technological acceleration remains ubiquitous today. In this paper, I trace one of the lineages of this new acceleration in the post-dotcom boom Silicon Valley. Informed by the technophilic culture of what Richard Barbrook and the late Andy Cameron described as Californian ideology, technological acceleration offers both a language and a model for antipoverty experiments hinging on the elusive market subject of the African entrepreneur. Drawing on the writings of three Silicon Valley evangelists who have produced a written culture of what I call poetics of acceleration, and on four years of ethnographic research in Cape Town, this paper charts the frictional interfaces between technocapitalism and African development, suggesting that these frictions, while vital in the production of new profit frontiers, are also the site of more ambivalent engagements with in-between futures that perhaps outstrip the predictable ends of these entrepreneurial market experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At any given time, 16% of the world's female population is made up of widowed women, though this figure varies by region. The loss of a spouse usually means the loss of economic and social support for the surviving partner. Understanding the experience of widowhood is essential to understanding society; the lives of widows offer insights into how societies are organised and what responses there are to those in need. This paper investigates the survival strategies of widows in Cape Town in 1938/9 using a household survey in order to understand whether their experiences differed by race in the city just before World War II and a decade before the formalisation of apartheid. The survey provides the opportunity to understand how widows in the city lived and worked, whether they cared for others or were given care from others. The paper considers the structures of households and the incomes of widows. Who did widows live with? Or did they live alone? Were they more likely to work than other women in the city? Was it common for widows to live with non-family members? One finding is that although coloured and white households seemed similar in size and nature, widowhood brought differences between them to the fore. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Africa is undergoing a rapid decline in social and political cohesion at various scales. This paper explores Cape Town's experience of socio-territorial messages and identities deployed by the City administration and the leading party, the Democratic Alliance. I focus on relational constructions of the subjectivity of the 'ratepayer' and the deserving Capetownian as constructed in the City and the DA's discourse and policy measures in juxtaposition to 'street people' and other supposedly deviant urban subjects and how, as such, the wilful ignorance of the first remains both unchallenged and in service of an exclusionary and unjust spatial order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Business parks have increasingly become part of Cape Town's industrial built environment over the last 25 years. It signifies a shift from large industrial premises to smaller units in communal industrial settings. This paper investigates the types of business activities found in the business parks using the conceptual underpinnings of location theory and industrial cluster theory. Online and fieldwork surveys of the businesses found in 49 business parks in Cape Town, South Africa, were conducted to compile a database of businesses and their activities. Each business was classified using the South African Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes to establish which economic sectors are represented in the business parks. It was found that the predominant economic sectors in business parks were the wholesale and retail trade, which included the repair of motor vehicles, motorcycles and personal and household goods and catering and accommodation, as well as the financial sector consisting of banking, insurance, real estate and business services. Manufacturing activities and commercial, social and personal services were also well represented. The findings indicate that business parks are the popular location for retail-orientated businesses and small manufacturing concerns and affirm the growing importance of the professional and business service sectors. The paper lays the groundwork for further investigation into the multi-scalar economic linkages of firms in business parks in Cape Town. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Securing sustainable and just transition pathways in cities is recognised as key to addressing global environmental challenges. There is increasing acceptance that transformative change in cities must be shaped by the co-production of knowledge between diverse partners. The creation of spaces of collaboration, referred to in the literature as 'third spaces', is integral to such co-production of knowledge. However, evidence to support a direct relationship between third spaces of engagement and securing urban transformation is largely undocumented. This paper deepens and develops the idea of shared spaces for knowledge co-production by drawing on the experiences of City officials and PhD researchers in a City-University knowledge partnership in Cape Town. It uses the data to critique the third space for its limited engagement with how the relationship between individual knowledge brokers and their home institutions effects change. The findings of the paper show that, despite the benefits of boundary crossing between the academy and practice, such crossings also leave individuals peripheralised from their 'home' institutions. This disconnect and sense of 'homelessness' limits the potential of co-production to affect urban transformation. To address the conceptual lacunae of the third space, I develop the idea of the portal to reflect the dynamic exchange required between individuals and their home institutions for realising relevant change. The form of the portal is not spatially bound, but reflects dynamic processes of entering and exiting sites of knowledge exchange to secure a sense of belonging. By highlighting the need to include processes for anchoring institutional learning, the concept of portals for knowledge exchange offers additional scope for securing urban transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Queer refugees are misfits in the global political economy of migration. While international human rights law has provided some room for queer acceptance, queer refugees face organised abandonment—marginality, erasure, and invisibility—as they attempt to survive in the face of ongoing displacement. This paper explores queer refugee survival in Nairobi, Cape Town, and Paris, and examines the netted practices of the state, non‐state actors, and civil society embedded in a landscape of heteronormativity and anti‐migrant sentiment. In so doing, this paper emphasises queerness as a form of precarity inseparable from the overarching violence of race, class, and capital. With this critique in mind, queer refugee survival is constrained by the lack of access to shelter, community, and work‐related social reproduction. In short, queer refugees face deeper marginality than their cis‐gendered and heterosexual counterparts as they attempt to survive in the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines public housing as an art of government to conceive, produce and discipline a normative ideal of 'good' citizenship through people and place. Using the framework of infrastructural citizenship, case studies from state-subsidised homeownership programmes in Cape Town (South Africa) and Stoke-on-Trent (UK) demonstrate how public housing provides a physical mediator for the politicisation of citizenship. Infrastructural citizenship is explored through both state expectations (of housing, of citizens) and citizens' everyday practices, revealing state-society contestation and conformity in how 'order' and 'decency' materialise. In bridging the global south/north the paper not only generates new knowledge from two rarely contrasted contexts, but also illuminates and challenges the dominance of global north examples in public housing debates. By juxtaposing contemporary case studies where neither is the dominant lens for analysis, the paper argues that difference is particularly illuminating for knowledge production, and that housing theory and policy need to embrace postcolonial perspectives to ensure global relevance and legitimacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Road fatalities were labelled a pandemic as early as 1973 (BMJ 1973). The number of road fatalities reached 1.35 million in 2016. Currently over 3 500 people perish every day on the world's roads. South Africa has one of the highest road fatality rates in the world, with a fatality rate of 25.9 deaths per 100 000 population (WHO 2018). In order to understand and improve the road safety situation of a region, effective road safety assessments must be carried out. This paper presents a comparison of four different road safety assessment approaches, both traditional and novel, and serves as a proof of concept for the 'road safety desert' methodology, a new technique adapted from the 'transit desert' concept. This new approach to road safety assessment explores the possibility of geo-coded supply and demand comparisons to identify 'road safety deserts' - areas that have a comparatively higher road safety risk. This paper shows that there are several unique and effective ways to assess road safety, and that each approach incorporates different characteristics within their methodologies. It is recommended that road safety analysis is conducted using a multitude of methods, so as to improve understanding and intervention selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land tenure security continues to pose a significant challenge to the sustainability of urban community gardens in global South cities. However, a few studies have explored the mechanisms that urban gardeners employ to facilitate land access and variations in land tenure security arrangements made with land owners in South African cities. This paper employs a mixed-methods research approach involving quantitative and qualitative techniques to examine how urban community gardens access land and land tenure security arrangements thereof. The study is based on questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, and observations from 34 urban community food gardens in Cape Town selected through a combination of purposive and snowball sampling methods across selected low-income urban neighbourhoods. The findings reveal that although formalised land tenure security poses a sustainability threat to community gardens, perceived and de facto tenure present equally crucial forms of tenure which could be supported by state actors to promote urban agriculture. Reflecting on past efforts to formalise land tenure security, the article concludes that these efforts have failed due to poor coordination among government departments, and the complex and unclear processes of acquiring land. The paper recommends that while formalising land tenure arrangements may prove to be an effective solution, supporting institutions need to adopt a bottom-up approach to understand the gardener's needs and build on perceived and de facto land tenure security options to promote the sustainability of community gardening projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In South Africa, the prevalence of gestational diabetes (GDM) is growing, concomitant with the dramatically increasing prevalence of overweight/obesity among women. There is an urgent need to develop tailored interventions to support women with GDM to mitigate pregnancy risks and to prevent progression to type 2 diabetes post-partum. The IINDIAGO study aims to develop and evaluate an intervention for disadvantaged GDM women attending three large, public-sector hospitals for antenatal care in Cape Town and Soweto, SA. This paper offers a detailed description of the development of a theory-based behaviour change intervention, prior to its preliminary testing for feasibility and efficacy in the health system. Methods: The Behaviour Change Wheel (BCW) and the COM-B model of behaviour change were used to guide the development of the IINDIAGO intervention. This framework provides a systematic, step-by-step process, starting with a behavioural analysis of the problem and making a diagnosis of what needs to change, and then linking this to intervention functions and behaviour change techniques to bring about the desired result. Findings from primary formative research with women with GDM and healthcare providers were a key source of information for this process. Results: Key objectives of our planned intervention were 1) to address women's evident need for information and psychosocial support by positioning peer counsellors and a diabetes nurse in the GDM antenatal clinic, and 2) to offer accessible and convenient post-partum screening and counselling for sustained behaviour change among women with GDM by integrating follow-up into the routine immunisation programme at the Well Baby clinic. The peer counsellors and the diabetes nurse were trained in patient-centred, motivational counselling methods. Conclusions: This paper offers a rich description and analysis of designing a complex intervention tailored to the challenging contexts of urban South Africa. The BCW was a valuable tool to use in designing our intervention and tailoring its content and format to our target population and local setting. It provided a robust and transparent theoretical foundation on which to develop our intervention, assisted us in making the hypothesised pathways for behaviour change explicit and enabled us to describe the intervention in standardised, precisely defined terms. Using such tools can contribute to improving rigour in the design of behavioural change interventions. Trial registration: First registered on 20/04/2018, Pan African Clinical Trials Registry (PACTR): PACTR201805003336174. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws principally from COVID-19 diaries written by young women whom we had previously trained as peer researchers in a mobility study of low-income neighbourhoods in Abuja, Cape Town and Tunis. Some live with parents or older extended family members, others have children in their care, but concerns around avoiding contagion have forced all peer researchers to reflect on their everyday socio-spatial mobility practices. This includes whether/how much they need to travel or can substitute virtual for physical travel; which transport mode to take and when; what precautions they must take on the move; what strategies of engagement are required to cope with externally imposed rules and contingencies – and the potential impact of their negotiations, decisions and experiences on the health of those dear to them at home. Reflections on these pandemic-induced responsibilities range from social distancing and mask wearing to issues around handling cash, modes of greeting and travel to funerals. The personal interpretations of responsibility that are reported in individual diaries point to the complexity of entanglements between everyday mobility practices on city streets and negotiated relations of care within the household (and other relational settings) that have emerged and deepened as the COVID story unfolds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and related policy measures on livelihoods in urban South Africa. Using qualitative research methods, we analyse two rounds of semi-structured phone interviews, conducted between June and September 2020 in the township of Khayelitsha, Cape Town. We contextualise these by presenting a snapshot of the nationwide dynamics using quantitative panel data. Our findings describe how the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic has deepened the economic vulnerability which preceded the crisis. Survivalist livelihood strategies were undermined by the economic disruption to the informal sector, while the co-variate nature of the shock rendered social networks and informal insurance mechanisms ineffective, causing households to liquidate savings, default on insurance payments, and deepen their reliance on government grants. In addition, the impact of the pandemic on schooling may deepen existing inequalities and constrain future upward mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Capturing the dynamics of population change in urban areas necessitates access to geographically fine‐grained and temporally consistent data for several time points. Such data are generally not available and they must be created using standard population data which cannot usually be compared across time periods. In this paper, the focus is on changing spatial inequalities in Cape Town, South Africa. This paper details an approach to generation of gridded population counts (250 m by 250 m) for two census years – 2001 and 2011. Census data for Small Area Layers (SALs), Spot Building Count (SBC) data, and Open Street Map (OSM) landuse data were used to construct a grid of populated cells to which population counts are then reallocated. The reallocation of population counts from SALs to grid cells was undertaken using area‐to‐point kriging – an approach which is informed by the spatial variation in the population groups of interest as measured using the variogram. A case study based on population grids of unemployment rates shows how the grids can be used to chart changes and also to measure spatial inequalities across the city at two time points. The advantages of grids for capturing fine‐scale complexities and correctly accounting for physical separation between communities are demonstrated and the results show, while the broad patterns of inequality are consistent across time, there are pronounced increases in inequalities in some neighbourhoods. These areas – and what leads some areas to fall further behind – should be the subject of attention by policy‐makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What stories of religion matter in the age of the Anthropocene? This paper begins by situating the Abundance Crochet Coral Reef, an installation of crocheted coralline landscapes exhibited at the Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town, as a methodological motif and enactment to think creatively about and with the study of religion in the Anthropocene. Journeying through the current trends in various fields in the study of religion that are responsive to Anthropocene concerns, I argue that there is a growing body of scholarly work that troubles the dualisms and hierarchies of humannature and nature-culture that have informed, and indeed, dominated, conceptualizations about religion and the study of religion. Finally, I turn to feminist theory to continue to in-tune religion storytelling (the study of religion) to the challenges of the Anthropocene. Drawing inspiration from the Abundance Crochet Coral Reef, I explore the concept of kinship to open creative vistas for methodological enrichment in the study of religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The object of this research is the influence of a distributed work methodology on worker morale in the milieu of perceived organizational support. This paper aims to explore the influence of a distributed work methodology on worker morale in the milieu of perceived organizational support. One of the most challenging aspects of distributed work methodology is recognized and adapting to an unanticipated and novel work approach which is unchartered territory for many. During this research, a mixed methodology is used with a hypothetico-deductive approach, which enabled the testing of a working hypothesis through a sample in the administrative cadre in the public health sector, Cape Town, South Africa. As a result of the research, it is shown that mental health with continued well-being was confirmed as primarily well supported and mitigated by numerous organizational support incentives and therefore, work outcomes are found to be positively related to the influence of worker morale. As worker morale influences worker commitment and engagement levels, which has organizational behavior and productivity implications, it is clear from the findings that conceptualizing multi-dimensional well-being at work is vital to an in-depth comprehension of the relationship between living meaningfully and being content at work. Consequently, in terms of application, it befits management cadres to look at the evidence and ponder the best approach for the future of work. The supposition of a shifted and adapted management-subordinate control that relies primarily on the monitoring of remote outputs is supported, and therefore a proposed approach for future research should be focused on the role of organizational control in flexible work practices. More diverse sampling, representative of various corporate entities and inclusive of private entities, is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While existing literature has amply demonstrated how states may "see" their populations, we know less about which residents are legible to the state as populations. Drawing on extended ethnographic fieldwork and interviews conducted between 2011 and 2019 in Cape Town, South Africa, this paper compares the fate of two large land occupations, one of which was evicted, one of which was not. In doing so, this paper demonstrates how rather than taking "populations" as a given, this status should be understood as an outcome. It suggests that participants in each respective occupation began with different views of the state. In other words, the way residents saw the state impacted each respective organizational outcome, which in turn affected how they were seen by the state. In one occupation, participants saw the state as a partner in obtaining housing, and so they organized themselves as atomized recipients. In the other, they viewed the state as an obstacle, and so they organized themselves collectively. Only in the latter case were residents viewed as a population; in the former, they were all evicted. Ultimately, this paper argues that, by bringing tools from political sociology to bear upon urban ethnography, we can gain insight into a process otherwise overlooked in the literature, allowing us to make sense of a question that is central to understanding urban politics in the global South: how do municipal governments decide which occupations to evict and which to tolerate? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From 1950 onwards, under the apartheid regime's Group Areas Act, hundreds of thousands of people were forced to leave their homes across South Africa's cities. While the removals from some areas, notably District Six in Cape Town, are well documented and memorialised, many others have largely been erased from public memory. In a context of burgeoning research into issues of spatial justice in Southern cities, this paper puts forward the argument that the concepts and practice of memory and memorialising in urban spaces deserve more attention. Specifically, we suggest that the relationships between space and memory, shaped by collective, public acts of remembering and forgetting, can expand our understanding of what constitutes spatial justice in our cities. Reflecting on a research project conducted in Lower Claremont, a racially mixed, middle‐class suburb in Cape Town that was declared White in 1969 and subsequently dubbed Harfield Village, we explore some of the ways in which remembering and forgetting take place on the urban scale, and their implications for imagining just cities. We ask, too, what possibilities exist for active remembering in this place and in similarly ordinary city spaces. Analysing oral histories from former residents and interviews with current occupants of the neighbourhood, we open up some of the complications in surfacing forgotten stories and creating landscapes of memory. In the final section of the paper we reflect on an art installation that formed part of the research project, and suggest some possibilities for active memory work in our urban spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South African students have since 2015 returned to the forefront of the country's social movement struggles. Central to this wave of contention was the #RhodesMustFall (#RMF) movement at the University of Cape Town (UCT), which coalesced with uprisings at universities across the country under the banner of #FeesMustFall, focusing demands on abolishing tuition fees, decolonizing education and society, and ending campus worker exploitation. In the process, students imagined how education and society could be different. In this paper, we discuss the relationship between social movements, occupations, and imagination, by examining a crucial event in the #RMF movement: the student occupation of an administrative building at UCT. Because social movement theory has an underdeveloped conception of the imagination, we draw on Sartre's and Fanon's understanding of the imagination and apply it to students' activism. Based on original qualitative research we demonstrate how imagined futures guide movement activity, while their prefigurative practices in the occupation enacted these in the present. The #RMF occupation was seen as a break from reality that catalysed students' imaginations, honing their critiques of society and shaping two central imaginaries of alternative futures, decolonization and intersectionality. The #RMF movement's imaginaries and enactments were influential in reshaping the South African higher education landscape and even inspired movements internationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quarried stone has a multitude of uses in the built environment. Often old, abandoned quarries near cities have become enveloped by urban expansion. This paper investigates what becomes of disused quarries, specifically in Cape Town, South Africa. The study is scaffolded by the theoretical underpinnings of urban materiality which, in turn, draws from assemblage theory. It is posited that the urban materialities of quarries, as one-time sites of material extraction, do not cease with closure. The infill, rehabilitation and repurposing of quarries for other uses result in continued contributions of quarries to the urbanscape, in addition to being historical sites of meaning and memory. The location of 77 quarries in Cape Town were mapped using data from various sources. Seventy-one quarries are in a post-extractive state. Thirty-five per cent of disused quarries have not been rehabilitated or altered by human activity after closure. However, they are sites of non-human use. Sixty-five per cent of the post-extractive quarries are sites for housing, commercial and educational activities; for recreational activities; have been infilled; or they store water for agricultural purposes. The reuse of quarries speaks to the creation of new urban materialities and assemblages by humans and non-humans which are worthy of further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A multi-faceted analysis of the positioning of logistics facilities relative to airports is a topical aspect of the interconnections between transport infrastructure and the spatial configuration of economic activities. Regardless of the wide range of studies that exist on the topic, little is known about the logistics catchment of airports. Towards extending the literature, the objective of the paper is to analyse the spatial configuration of logistics firms relative to Cape Town International Airport (CTIA) in South Africa. Methods: The inclination of logistics facilities to locate in industrial areas is widely acknowledged in the literature. As such, the data on the main industrial and economic nodes in the City of Cape Town metropolitan area were obtained from the City of Cape Town municipality and used to ascertain the extent of the industrial areas across the metropolitan area. The resultant geographic information system (GIS) shapefile of the industrial and economic nodes was used to obtain the logistics firms' data from AfriGIS. Following the cleaning of the data from AfriGIS, ArcGIS 10.8 and QGIS 3.16 were used for spatial analysis (buffer, kernel density and network analysis) to establish the spatial configuration of the logistics firms relative to CTIA. Results: The results showed that of the 985 logistics firms in the metropolitan area, 937 were located within 20 km of CTIA. Furthermore, the kernel density results showed that high density values were found in the environs of the Cape Town central business district (CBD), Port of Cape Town and Milnerton. The results of the network analysis indicated that the furthest firm was 50 km and 64 min away on the shortest route to CTIA, while it was 55 km and 49 min away on the fastest route. Conclusions: Relative to the literature, the results show that CTIA has the potential to facilitate the emergence of a logistics hub at the city or metropolitan scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of several online travel agents (OTA) has come with several benefits for the potential travellers. Many accommodation establishments especially hotels find OTA helpful in this age of technological innovations and are using them as distribution channels for their products. This paper examines why hotel customers opt to book indirectly via OTA rather than making direct booking with the hotel. The paper also determines why hotel customers in the Cape Metropole think it is cheaper and more convenient to make reservations through travel agents. Hotel customer behaviour when booking accommodation is also reviewed to establish the motivations in choosing a specific booking method. Three-hundred hotel guests participated in the study, and the data was analysed descriptively using the IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The study revealed a preference for OTAs rather than direct reservation with the hotel, and this was mainly attributed to convenience and affordability. The study is of importance to hotels and OTAs as it advances an understanding of booking behaviours of hotel customers. Recommendations on how hotels could attract and convince customers to book directly to help avoid paying commissions to OTAs were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first photographs taken at the Cape of Good Hope (and therefore South Africa) date from 1843 and were due to Charles Piazzi Smyth, Chief Assistant at the Royal Observatory, Cape. His surviving positives and negatives are gathered here with descriptions of their subjects. They are mainly of the Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope, of a Magnetic Observatory on the same site that no longer exists, and of various buildings in Cape Town. However, they also include the first photographic portraits made at the Cape and images of two astronomical instruments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Airports are essential drivers of spatial development; hence the placement of logistics facilities relative to airports is a topical subject. Despite the wealth of the literature on the subject, relatively little is known about the airfreight catchment of airports. To contribute to the existing knowledge, the paper used the study area of the City of Cape Town municipality, South Africa, to address three research objectives, namely analysis of factors that influence the placement of logistics firms in the municipality, analysis of the linkages of the logistics firms with Cape Town International Airport (CTIA), and analysis of the association between airfreight-related firms and the general attributes of logistics firms in the municipality. Methods: The study hinged on a quantitative design, which included a survey and spatial analysis. A total of 110 logistics firms were sampled through a stratified random sampling technique, and 66 firms participated in the telephonic interviews conducted in October and November 2021. Survey data were analyzed using Stata, and spatial analysis was undertaken using ArcGIS 10.8 and QGIS 3.16. Results: It was discovered that a quarter of the respondent logistics firms utilized CTIA for airfreight purposes. At a municipal scale, the potential airfreight catchment of CTIA extended to about a 20 km radius of the airport. Conclusions: In formulating the spatial plans, the planning authorities are encouraged to take cognizance of the possible extent of the catchment, wherein airfreight-related firms do not necessarily locate near the airport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores women's role in the alcohol trade in Cape Town between 1680 and 1795, particularly their use of social and symbolic capital against the background of their male counterparts' activities. While these women are conspicuous due to their direct involvement in the alcohol trade, they, too, did so within a context of spousal cooperation and family involvement. Several men entered the trade because of marriage into an alcohol retail family, while in many cases, wives were heavily involved in their husbands' entrepreneurial activities. Some families were involved in this trade over several generations, mostly through the female line. This paper demonstrates that the greater social and economic freedom accorded women in the Dutch Republic during this period also occurred in the colonial space, including Cape Town. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South African women own a modest share of businesses while being the majority of the population. Increasing the number of female entrepreneurs in South Africa is expected to reduce poverty and unemployment, empower women, ensure equity, and strengthen the economy. This article examined the development of women entrepreneurs in Cape Town through guided and funded business start-ups. Data were collected using a qualitative technique based on purposive sampling through semi-structured interviews with 17 participants. An interpretive paradigm and an explorative design were employed. The data was analysed using ATLAS.ti software. According to the participants, many women-owned business start-ups are neither funded nor guided. The findings revealed that many women entrepreneurs do not support one another in business start-ups in Cape Town. Moreover, minimal effort is put into interventions by both the government and the private sector to abate gender discrimination and eliminate the exclusion of women entrepreneurs. There are instances of gender bias that impede the development of women entrepreneurs. The findings confirm that the development of women entrepreneur-focused funding for start-ups has received scant attention in Cape Town. Many women entrepreneurs still do not receive developmental support. Among the proposed interventions to improve women's entrepreneurship, start-up funding, and guidance are platforms that encourage informal businesses to become formal and penetrate formal financial networks. This paper argues for lending models best suited for women entrepreneurs in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban citizens increasingly need to adapt to climate risk. This is especially the case in informal settlements that have limited state engagement and are particularly vulnerable to climate change. Community-based adaptation (CBA) in the informal settlement has the potential to support the transformation that re-shapes power relations as well as reducing climate risk. This paper explores how multiscalar governance in Cape Town can either empower or undermine CBA to flooding in informal settlements. Drawing on urban political ecology, the analysis reveals significant tension around differing ideas of the temporality of informal settlements, as well as token community inclusivity in participatory planning processes. While everyday governance practices have been used by the City of Cape Town at the local scale, a local community-based organisation has used insurgent planning to envision and enact a more just city. A community designed and spear-headed reblocking process (rearranging shacks in a settlement to allow for flood drainage and service delivery) is a powerful example of CBA and represents the potential of community-based organisations to take steps towards transformative action. In order to enable more widespread urban transformative CBA, it is important to address the drivers of vulnerabilities and underlying power dynamics of political decision-making to destabilise the status quo and move towards real adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses what it means to live with acutely restricted access to the city in the process of seeking urban asylum in post-apartheid South Africa. Our concept of apportionment specifies the gendered and racialised diminishment of space and time in the context of exclusionary and everyday violence. We focus on how the delineation and reduction of space and time is feminised, through the working lives of refugee and asylum-seeking women from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who live in Cape Town. Their embodied experiences incorporate the resonance of war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, further sharpening their careful movements across Cape Town's segregated geographies. Drawing on our conversations with non-governmental organisations and self-employed women over a nine-month period in 2020, we highlight how the deferral of refuge compounds precarity, significantly affecting women and those who are sexually minoritised. In connecting how state apportionment maps onto urban apportionment we reveal how an ecology of violence – of spatialised segregation, xenophobia and sexual violence – establishes a corporeal power that constrains access to the city. Crucially, these women deploy counter practices of apportionment and their precisely attuned navigations add to our understanding of the agile repertoires of working the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To establish underlying issues that have hindered the implementation of smart mobility systems in Cape Town. Design/methodology/approach: This article review is based on a theoretical literature review on the idea of mobility and smart City in Cape Town, South Africa. The theoretical approach was based on published journals, government sources, and other sources. Findings: Smart mobility is one of the developmental strategies of this City with a focus on enhancing the existing transport system. This will help improve commuter transfer speed and the overall quality of life. However, the current transport systems have greatly undermined commuter experience, leading to traffic congestion, high transport costs, air and noise pollution, and generally low quality of life. This has had a significant negative impact on the local inhabitants' economic, social, and psychological. The government has also lost revenue due to frequent maintenance, vandalism, and an underutilized transport system. Originality/value: the presented review paper provides a realistic overview of the issues affecting the local government and residents of Cape Town. These issues directly affect the national government and, therefore, there is a need to change the underlying transport structures to ensure that Cape Town meets its smart mobility goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In August 2023, Cape Town, South Africa, experienced an intense eightday taxi strike, marked by violence and resulting in fatalities. This paper conducts a comprehensive analysis of the strike, focusing on its impact on black women in Cape Town's townships, as suggested by the title. Through a meticulous exploration and theorisation of the concept of “Ecaleni kwendlela,”¹ I aim to contextualise the role and experiences of black women in Cape Town. Employing endleleni² as a site for deconstructing racialised and gendered lines, I address the central question of how this strike accentuates distinct gendered and racialised dynamics for black women. This study utilises an indigenous storytelling methodology to delve into these complex issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary literature on urban agriculture often analyses urban community gardens as 'existing' commons with the capacity to counter neoliberal urban development and resource management practices. However, the existing literature on 'political gardening' generally focuses on cities in North America and Europe, despite the prevalence of urban community gardens and neoliberal planning across other regions, including Southern cities. This paper examines urban community gardens in Cape Town, South Africa to assess their capacity to function as urban commons in six areas: infrastructure, inputs, land, produce, labour and immaterial components. This mixed‐methods study employed questionnaires, semi‐structured interviews and observations across 34 urban community gardens in the city. The findings and analysis demonstrate how the urban community gardens counter neoliberal privatisation and individualisation processes. However, their capacity to function as urban commons is significantly curtailed by an entrenchment within the neoliberal context. Thus, the urban community gardens are framed as 'experimental' commons, a valuable re‐conceptualisation of alternative resource utilisation in neoliberal Southern cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent French reform, dated 15 September 2021, which entered into force on 1 January 2022, largely modifies the law of guarantees and security interests. It clarifies a certain number of rules, suppresses several security interests that appeared to be obsolete, and reinforces the protection of warrantors without neglecting the interests of creditors. Adopted to promote security, flexibility, and accessibility to French Law, and to enhance the efficiency of secured transactions, the reform has generally been perceived as successful. The purpose of this paper is to present the reform in an international perspective and to try to understand whether it fits the purpose it was assigned: to strengthen the attractiveness of French Law in the comparative landscape. We will demonstrate that, regarding a certain number of international instruments and foreign laws, the answer tends to be affirmative. The French Government might also seize this opportunity to include France in several international projects that it has, so far, stayed away from, such as the ratification of the Cape Town Convention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the 'spirit of the gift' as a framework for the analysis of the moral and political economy of public housing delivery in South Africa since democracy. The paper compares the gifts of Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) houses delivered by the state to 'beneficiaries', selected from long waiting lists in cities, towns and some rural places, with the homes built by families as gifts for their ancestors in their former homelands and rural areas. One of the central features of gifts, according to anthropologists, is that they are meant to be inalienable possessions, things that should not be sold or commodified. They are also assumed to carry a spirit, an aura or identity that binds them to the givers and communicates a relationship with those who receive the gifts. In post-colonial societies scholars tend to discuss the delivery of public goods and infrastructures within a framework of rights and entitlements. What they overlook is the extent to which public goods are also sometimes conceptualised and received as gifts that carry a sense of expectation, obligation, and the spirit of social exchange. The paper focuses on what happens when the 'spirit of the gift' of public housing is not honoured or reciprocated by beneficiaries as the gifts develop new social lives outside the parameters of those intended in the original policy. The ethnographic and historical evidence presented in the paper is drawn from numerous research projects undertaken by the author in Cape Town and the Eastern Cape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Charles F. Mackenzie was an Anglican archdeacon in the 19th century in the newly formed Diocese of Natal. He was consecrated a missionary bishop for Central Africa in Cape Town in 1861, which was a significant development for the Anglican Church at the time. Mackenzie struggled to read the social landscape, becoming embroiled in colonial conflict. Consequently, congregants, colleagues, and historians have characterized him in markedly different ways, rendering a disputed legacy. This paper brings Mackenzie into conversation with another figure who is not without his own controversy: Martyn Percy. Applying Percy's implicit theological approach provides an important lens with which to view the social complexities, ecclesial conflicts and missional contexts which Mackenzie sought to navigate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In South Africa, young men are generally considered to generate many of the risks associated with informal settlement life, yet their own vulnerability in these environments is seldom considered. Seeking insights into male susceptibility in these impoverished urban spaces is methodologically challenging. How does one encourage poor marginalised young men to speak with candour about their insecurities and challenges? The research methods used, while facilitating openness, should also build their confidence as they reflect on the challenges of everyday life. This paper describes the methodological journey undertaken in a study of young Black men living in informal settlements in Cape Town, South Africa, revealing how they perceive their vulnerability in these environments. It demonstrates how a suite of methods gradually developed through trial and error, with the young men themselves assisting in the adaptation of tools, ranging from interviews using adapted participatory methods to non‐prescriptive diary‐writing. Together they delivered deep and penetrating insights into the lives of the young men, and the nature of their vulnerability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cultural and creative industries (CCIs) are increasingly being recognised in South Africa, as in other countries, as wealth-creating, given appropriate investment, rather than primarily a non-market subsidized sector. However, national innovation policy is still predominantly focused on STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) skillsets and related product markets. This paper analyses how the CCIs in the Cape Town cluster innovate by combining digital technology, creative inputs, and workforce diversity. Based on a similar study conducted in Brighton, UK, a cluster of innovative CCI firms was identified that are to varying degrees "fused", defined as combining digital technology and creative design in production. Fused firms have higher levels of innovation in business processes, goods and services. Fused firms were also more likely to employ demographically diverse people, adding insights from the South African mix to the UK studies on disciplinary diversity. While fused creative-digital firms employ greater diversity, a qualitative analysis of SA gaming and animation firms nevertheless demonstrates the challenges for improving diversity in a developing country context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]