Earlier this month (September 2018), I participated in a thought-provoking panel engaging the ‘margins’ in the research process. The panel was part of the two-day workshop ‘Speculative Infrastructures and Cities-in-the-Making,’ which was organized by Jon Silver and Paula Meth at the University of Sheffield and supported by Urban Geography journal and the University of Sheffield’s… Continue reading ‘Speculative infrastructures’ at the urban margins
Author: African Urbanism
Amplifying Local Voices on Ghana’s Built Environment: Accra Architecture Writing Workshop
amplify: verb. to make larger, greater, or stronger; to enlarge; extend; to expand in stating or describing, as by details or illustrations; to clarify by expanding….to discourse at length… For three days in early July 2018, I worked with undergraduate, masters, and PhD students as one of three workshop tutors in the Accra Architecture Writing Workshop,… Continue reading Amplifying Local Voices on Ghana’s Built Environment: Accra Architecture Writing Workshop
Accra Architecture & Urbanism Writing Workshop, July 2018
The Accra Architecture & Urbanism Writing Workshop takes place Friday, July 6 through Sunday, July 8, 2018 in Accra, Ghana. The workshop is being instituted to coach a number of emerging Architectural and urban focused academics in West Africa to be able to write academic blog articles to initiate a West African Architecture and Urbanism… Continue reading Accra Architecture & Urbanism Writing Workshop, July 2018
Situating Spatial Appropriation within Decolonial & Feminist Frameworks: Thinking through Research Methodology
In September 2017, I began PhD studies at the Sheffield School of Architecture (SSoA) as part of a long desire to engage in research that examines spatial appropriation in two West African cities – Accra, Ghana and Lagos, Nigeria – with the aim of documenting and theorising about space from the local, southern perspectives of… Continue reading Situating Spatial Appropriation within Decolonial & Feminist Frameworks: Thinking through Research Methodology
Join the #TalkingSpaces Twitter Discussions on Child-Friendly Public Spaces
The city of Accra, Ghana, like others around Africa, is expanding at a rapid pace. The pressure on the ground in the metropolis to make way for urban development translates into the cutting down age-old trees, and the taking over of play grounds, parks, waterways, and other essential community resources. City authorities’ plans and the competing, uncoordinated priorities of city dwellers, vendors,… Continue reading Join the #TalkingSpaces Twitter Discussions on Child-Friendly Public Spaces
For African cities, ‘tactical urbanism’ has its limits
It was a few years ago that the framework of tactical urbanism, a concept particularly promoted and popularized by U.S. planning design firm Street Plans Collaborative, gained traction, particularly in the United States and European contexts. The idea of tactical urbanism refers to locally led, low-cost and short-term built environment interventions aimed at improving local… Continue reading For African cities, ‘tactical urbanism’ has its limits
Money in a slum: the logic of small gains
Dagna Rams is a doctoral candidate at the Department of Social and Political Science at the University of Lausanne, researching urban management and the politics and economies at the heart of the slum communities/informal settlements of Old Fadama and Agbogbloshie (Ghana). On a research outing around one of Accra’s informal settlements, my friend Abdallah (a slum activist… Continue reading Money in a slum: the logic of small gains