Spatial planning and locational decision-making for public housing interventions in South Africa (resubmission)

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Uwe Altrock
• Subject Area: Urbanism, Spatial Planning, Transportation and Infrastructure Planning, Landscape Planning
• Term: from 2017 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 353020866

For many years, South African municipalities had to live with legaluncertainties about planning competencies and an overlay of planninglaws, which promoted different rules and institutions. Municipalitiesare faced with a huge demand for low-income housing by peopleliving in informal settlements. At the same time higher levels ofgovernment exert pressure to implement housing programmes whichdo not always match local priorities. Against this backdrop, the studywants to increase academic knowledge about the actors (inside andoutside of government), who are involved in the governance of landand housing, and about the (formal and informal) rules andinstitutions, which are invoked in the process. It will establish to whatdegree locational decisions are guided by legally required planninginstruments like spatial development frameworks and "housingchapters". Analytical governance concepts will be used to explain bothstructural and cultural factors behind concrete planning practices.Case studies from different provinces covering both informalsettlement upgrading and new housing development are expected tocontribute to comparative research into spatial planning systems. Bylinking governance and performance analyses of planning practice thestudy will also add to the international debate about appropriateapproaches to spatial planning in emerging economies, which arecharacterized by huge economic disparity and cultural difference.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants