JG
J.K. Gathanga
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City-regions for cultural nomads
Leveraging transitory rural-urban networks in Nairobi's peripheries through regional agroecological systems; A guide to city-region planning in Kenya
Projected rapid urbanization in African cities is posed to put immense pressure on existing neoliberal urban planning strategies as practised in primary cities and metropolitan regions across Sub-Saharan Africa. This is despite the visible shortcomings of these neoliberal urban development models in delivering the required human development alongside economic growth, specifically for majority of the urban residents in African cities - the urban poor. The political, external agency of cities to global economies at the expense of the internal cultural-economic capacities of local communities continues to propagate inequality, with the urban poor being the most affected by these unjust systems. Continued rural-urban migration, and the growth of the peripheries in urban areas, has seen reduced productivity in traditional integrated agroecological lifestyles and this is unfortunately happening against weakened industrial and manufacturing industries within local urban contexts while propagating a producer-service industry that has fewer opportunities for the rapidly increasing vulnerable populations. The witnessed result of this for the urban peripherals is a growing impermanence of urban lifestyles and the persistence of rural-urban links, as not only escapes from the terror of rigid developmental states mindsets, but also as crucial links for producer-consumer relationships in the splintered regional food system. Unfortunately, the current governance impetus is the propagation of neoliberal models of modernization and gentrification of the urban poor, putting a strain on this crucial cross territorial relationships that sustain urban life. This rural-urban relationships therefore begin to expose the urgent need for reconciling production and consumption landscapes within sustainable city-region governance and planning practices in order to advocate for just urbanisation processes that caters to all populations. This research, critically analyses the symbiotic relationship between the current informal urbanisation structures prevalent in primary cities through the case study of Nairobi, and specifically within the peripherals, and their culturaleconomic identities associated with rural-urban transitory patterns. This investigation makes an attempt to reconnect the future of Kenyan urbanisation to social-cultural production capacities and processes as advocated by critical spatial production and governance literature. Through the main stay of Kenya’s economy - agriculture- and the critical need for sustainable transitions in agricultural and urbanisation systems, we suggest a reconciliation between the emerging social movement of agroecological urbanism at a city-region scale and the adaptiveness of prevalent cultural-economic rural-urban relationships, to suggest a regional, inclusive and adaptive approach to planning practice and governance.
...
Projected rapid urbanization in African cities is posed to put immense pressure on existing neoliberal urban planning strategies as practised in primary cities and metropolitan regions across Sub-Saharan Africa. This is despite the visible shortcomings of these neoliberal urban development models in delivering the required human development alongside economic growth, specifically for majority of the urban residents in African cities - the urban poor. The political, external agency of cities to global economies at the expense of the internal cultural-economic capacities of local communities continues to propagate inequality, with the urban poor being the most affected by these unjust systems. Continued rural-urban migration, and the growth of the peripheries in urban areas, has seen reduced productivity in traditional integrated agroecological lifestyles and this is unfortunately happening against weakened industrial and manufacturing industries within local urban contexts while propagating a producer-service industry that has fewer opportunities for the rapidly increasing vulnerable populations. The witnessed result of this for the urban peripherals is a growing impermanence of urban lifestyles and the persistence of rural-urban links, as not only escapes from the terror of rigid developmental states mindsets, but also as crucial links for producer-consumer relationships in the splintered regional food system. Unfortunately, the current governance impetus is the propagation of neoliberal models of modernization and gentrification of the urban poor, putting a strain on this crucial cross territorial relationships that sustain urban life. This rural-urban relationships therefore begin to expose the urgent need for reconciling production and consumption landscapes within sustainable city-region governance and planning practices in order to advocate for just urbanisation processes that caters to all populations. This research, critically analyses the symbiotic relationship between the current informal urbanisation structures prevalent in primary cities through the case study of Nairobi, and specifically within the peripherals, and their culturaleconomic identities associated with rural-urban transitory patterns. This investigation makes an attempt to reconnect the future of Kenyan urbanisation to social-cultural production capacities and processes as advocated by critical spatial production and governance literature. Through the main stay of Kenya’s economy - agriculture- and the critical need for sustainable transitions in agricultural and urbanisation systems, we suggest a reconciliation between the emerging social movement of agroecological urbanism at a city-region scale and the adaptiveness of prevalent cultural-economic rural-urban relationships, to suggest a regional, inclusive and adaptive approach to planning practice and governance.
Closed Loops, Open Justice
Creating circular construction flows, for a just social housing industry
Student report
(2020)
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Roos Jeronimus, Jort van den Broek, Jackson Kariuki Gathanga, Chen GAO, Marcin Dabrowski, Claudiu Forgaci, Remon Rooij, Roberto Rocco
In the province of South Holland steps have been taken to create a circular construction industry to mitigate current linear processes. These linear processes include wasteful resource-intensive models that lead to loss of value and depletion of raw materials. However, to achieve a complete circular construction industry, the true social and environmental costs of this transition need to be taken into account. This has shown to increase the initial cost of construction which, if left uncontrolled, would lead to an increasing gap in the provision of affordable social housing. Therefore, the aim of this research is to provide innovative circular construction solutions for the provision of spatially just social housing in the densification of South Holland. There is a focus on the current state and trends of the construction industry in relation to the densification and social housing issues. Through literature review and data analysis the current and future issues are identified to create a toolbox of design strategies. The toolbox contains local production, modular and flexible construction, improved infrastructure, digitization, and transformation and restoration. To explore how a circular construction industry can be deployed in the provision of social housing, our focus is on three different kind of strategic areas: social housing in big cities, social housing in medium-sized cities and (former) industrial areas. The previously mentioned tools will illustrate not only the transition towards a more circular construction industry that supports the provision of social housing, but also shows how it can function as an area that engages people with the transitions towards a circular economy. This will tackles issues of segregation, diversity, equality awareness and participation.
...
In the province of South Holland steps have been taken to create a circular construction industry to mitigate current linear processes. These linear processes include wasteful resource-intensive models that lead to loss of value and depletion of raw materials. However, to achieve a complete circular construction industry, the true social and environmental costs of this transition need to be taken into account. This has shown to increase the initial cost of construction which, if left uncontrolled, would lead to an increasing gap in the provision of affordable social housing. Therefore, the aim of this research is to provide innovative circular construction solutions for the provision of spatially just social housing in the densification of South Holland. There is a focus on the current state and trends of the construction industry in relation to the densification and social housing issues. Through literature review and data analysis the current and future issues are identified to create a toolbox of design strategies. The toolbox contains local production, modular and flexible construction, improved infrastructure, digitization, and transformation and restoration. To explore how a circular construction industry can be deployed in the provision of social housing, our focus is on three different kind of strategic areas: social housing in big cities, social housing in medium-sized cities and (former) industrial areas. The previously mentioned tools will illustrate not only the transition towards a more circular construction industry that supports the provision of social housing, but also shows how it can function as an area that engages people with the transitions towards a circular economy. This will tackles issues of segregation, diversity, equality awareness and participation.