Keynote: Open City: The Spatial Justice of Urban Sustainability | The Open City Initiative

Speaker: Roberto Rocco, TU Delft & Rike Sitas, African Centre for Cities

Date & Time: March 16, 14:30–15:45 (CET)

In this lecture, Roberto & Rike will explore the political economy of sustainability, making a case for a radically different interpretation of the problem of the tragedy of the commons. In this talk, issues of sustainability, democracy and spatial justice are not only related, but underscore each other. Roberto also explores ideas of communicative planning that address this intersection. 

Roberto Rocco is an associate professor of spatial planning & strategy at TU Delft, working and researching metropolitan and regional governance, social sustainability and spatial justice. He obtained his PhD at TU Delft in 2008. He is responsible for course development and coordination in the areas of research methodology and design practice, regional planning and design, governance and sustainability. He leads the TU Delft Summer School Planning and Design with Water, in which a large group of international students explores how to make cities simultaneously more just and more resilient to climate change through water sensitive urban planning and design. He is also a consultant for the Union for the Mediterranean, for whom he has written the UfM Strategic Action Plan for Sustainable Urbanisation and the UfM Housing Action Plan, together with Carola Hein and Remon Rooij.  Additionally, he studies informal urbanisation in the Global South, connected to rapid urbanisation in weak institutional environments and leads several initiatives connected to sustainable urban development in the Global South.

Roberto started his academic career at the University of Sao Paulo, where he obtained a diploma in Architecture and Urbanism, and later a master’s in urban planning. He also has a specialisation in urban studies from the Institut Francais d’Urbanisme (now École d'urbanisme de Paris), and a post-doc in philosophy of science at the University of Hertfordshire, with a specialisation in academic research in areas of design practice.

Rike Sitas straddles the academic world of urban studies and creative practice, she is fascinated by the intersection of culture cities, and more specifically on the role of art in urban life. Her doctoral research stemmed out of several years of experience as a public arts practitioner, particularly in the NPO dala. The PhD focused on exploring the idea of an affective urbanism by looking at the role public-facing art can play in producing knowledge about the city. Linked to this is exploring the impact of the creative economy and cultural policy.

A large part of this focus means unpacking the notions of public space and public life in Southern cityness. It was this interest that underpinned her involvement in the Density Syndicate and Serious Fun, two components of ACC’s City Desired exhibition. She came to Urban Studies via Historical Studies, Political Science, Sociology and Fine Art. It was this grounding in the Humanities and Social Sciences that underpins her involvement in ACC’s Urban Humanities group. Currently, she is coordinating Cape Town’s involvement in Mistra Urban Futures, UrbanAfrica.Net, Cities Alliance Africa Think Tank, Public Art and the Power of Place, and coordinating the ACC’s Academic Seminar Series.

Over the past 10 years she has been involved in a range of art related projects with organisations such as the Visual Arts Network South Africa (VANSA) and the Gordon Institute of Performing and Creative Arts (GIPCA). She has participated in a range of solo and group shows at the KwaZulu-Natal Society for the Arts (KZNSA), Durban Art Gallery, ArtSpace Durban, The AVA Gallery, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Bag Factory; presented video work in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Rio; has taken part in a range of collaborative public events with local organisations such as Siwela Sonke and CAPE06, and international organisations such as Netherlands Media Institute (NIMK), Cascoland, AvideoArte-Mozambique and Raw Projects amongst others.

She has also coordinated and presented at a range of conferences and public symposia, most recently at GIPCA’s symposium on public art called ‘Remaking Place’ (2015); European Conference on African Studies (2013); and GIPCA’s ‘Thinking the City’ (2012). And presented plenary presentations at ‘Representing the South African City’ at the Université de Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense (2013) and the ACC/CUBES South African Cities Conference (2011).