City-making, Space and Spirituality: A Community-Based Urban Praxis with Reflections from South Africa

This book explores the soul of the city, focusing on the dynamics in inner-city neighborhoods of Pretoria, South Africa's post-apartheid capital. It argues that urban space is never neutral and is shaped by competing value frameworks. The first part invites planners, city-makers, and ordinary citizens to reclaim their agency in the city-making process, while the second part explores a concrete spirituality and ethic of urban space. It proposes a shift from planning as technocracy to planning as immersed, participatory artistry, opening up to the genius of space, responsive to urban cries, and joining to construct new, soul-full spaces.

Format: Hardback
Length: 304 pages
Publication date: 29 September 2023
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

This captivating book delves into the very essence of the city, unveiling its soul through the spaces and people that inhabit it. It embarks on a profound exploration of the dynamics within the inner-city neighborhoods of South Africa's post-apartheid capital, Pretoria, offering a unique perspective by focusing on the lives and experiences of its most vulnerable members. What emerges is a profound recognition that urban space is never neutral, but rather shaped by a complex interplay of competing value frameworks.

In the first part of the book, the author invites planners, city-makers, and ordinary urban citizens to embark on a transformative journey of self-understanding. Through the metaphor of becoming like children, planning practice is deconstructed and re-imagined, fostering a renewed sense of agency in the city-making process. A praxis-based methodology is presented, encompassing four distinct moments of entering, reading, imagining, and co-constructing the city. By embracing a childlike curiosity and openness, individuals are empowered to reimagine urban spaces and discourses in entirely new ways.

The second part of the book takes a deeper dive into the realm of concrete spirituality and ethics of urban space. It argues for a shift from planning as mere technocracy to planning as an immersive, participatory artistry. The author encourages planners to embrace the genius of space, to be responsive to the urban cries and to join forces with communities in constructing new spaces that are filled with soul and meaning. Local communities and interconnected movements become the embodiment of urban alternatives, emerging as powerful agents of resistance, reconstruction, and the building of new, soul-full spaces.

This book offers a valuable methodology for city-making that is firmly rooted in a community-based urban praxis. It provides a practical guide for researchers, professional planners, designers, and grassroots community developers and activists who seek to create cities that are not only functional but also deeply meaningful and inclusive. By embracing a holistic and community-driven approach, this book empowers individuals and communities to reclaim their agency in shaping the urban landscape and creating a future that is both prosperous and sustainable.

Weight: 770g
Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781032372235