Whose knowledges shape our city? Advancing a community-based urban praxis

• Author: Stephan De Beer
• DOI: 10.10520/EJC166193
• Published date: 01 January 2014
• Date: 01 January 2014
• Pages: 218-230

218

Whose knowledges shape our city?

Advancing a community-based urban

praxis

Stephan de Beer

Director, Centre for Contextual Ministry, University of Pretoria

OPSOMMING

Wie se Kennis(se) Vorm ons Stad? OpSoek na ’n Gemeenskapsgedrewe

Stedelike

Praxis

In die artikel word verskillende plekkevan kontestasieen hoop in die

middestad van Pretoria/Tshwane geidentifiseer, en die moontlike unieke

kennis(se)wat vanuit hierdie kontekste gegenereer word, word oorweeg.

Ek neem ’n spesifiekeposisie in en argumenteer dat sodanige plaaslike

kennis(se) meestal uitgesluit word van prosesse wat die stad nuut wil

visioneer, ten koste van onsself.In plaas van die uitsluiting van plaaslike

gemeenskappe met hulle unieke visies, ervaringe en kundigheid,

suggereer ek die doelbewuste bevordering van 'n gemeenskaps gedrewe

stedelike praxis.

Laastens bied ek die konsep van 'n Urban Studio as ’n moontlike trans-

dissiplinere ruimte, in noue samewerking met plaaslike gemeenskappe,

vir die generering vantransformerende kennis, wat die moontlikheid van

meer inklusiewe, regverdige en volhoubare stedelike woonbuurte kan

verhoog.

1 Introduction: Rethinking our Epistemologies

In the Old Testament, there is a picture of a troubled city in the Book of

Ecclesiastes (9:15). And it says, of this city, that there dwelled in the city

a man, poor but wise, who saved the city; but no one remembered him.

This man, to me, represents an epistemological challenge raising the

question of whose knowledges shape our city, which knowledges are

regarded as valid, and who is remembered in the process of revisioning

the city. I refer to all cities but in particular to Pretoria/Tshwane.

The absence of local and diverse knowledges from processes that

shape our cities today, almost always inevitably leads to the absence of

the very ones whose knowledges are not regarded. They might carry

glimpses of vision and seeds of solution. But no one remembers them.

In this article, I will firstly do a brief mapping of different sites of

struggle and hope in the inner city of Pretoria/Tshwane; secondly, I will

argue that these sites offer local and unique knowlegdes to be utilised;

thirdly, I will take a specific position, arguing for a community-based

urban praxis; and, lastly, I will introduce the concept of an Urban Studio,