About

The Centre for Urbanisation and Peripheralization (CUSP) investigates how ecologies and livelihoods are impacted by urbanization. Grounded in a de/postcolonial perspective, we use ethnographic and comparative methods to engage theoretically and empirically with two key questions: 1) What kinds of urbanization processes can be observed at the intersection of human and more-than-human life?; and 2) What do these changes mean when considering policies, regulations, and the everyday experiences of people living in our case study areas? We analyse processes of de/re-territorialization that influence urbanization, as well as the corresponding processes of peripheralization that manifest through spatial practices and lived experiences of the built environment. CUSP particularly focuses on gendered and environmental aspects of extended urbanization and on articulations of inequality, for instance, in how housing is constructed, how resources are accessed, and how relationships to urban infrastructure are shaped. Countering the tendency to treat “Africa” as an object of study, but not of knowledge production – which remains pervasive at universities of the West – is another key aim of our research and design work. We explore the creative adaptation of space, and how we as urbanists can support and expand this through our practice. We aim to learn about the resources and opportunities vibrant urban centralities like Johannesburg can provide, investigating thematic topics such as resilience and informality, and relying on tools from urban and social research approaches to translate empirical observations into design impulses.