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Exploring Interdisciplinary Cooperation in the Relationship Between Urban Management Strategies, Modes of Production and the Production of Urban Space in Cape Town, South Africa

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Abstract

The growth and socio-economic importance of urban areas is evident and, consequently, its exposure to urban drift and challenges. Interactions of everyday life reflect the production and use of urban space and consequently the need for building and infrastructure developments, essential for facets of urban life. It is argued that the pre-project requirements and the post-project operational requirements of buildings and infrastructure involve complex socio-economic relationships that cannot be ignored. Such relationships involve ownership, users and other parties (e.g. legal and technical). Exploring the complexity in these interdependent relationships inherent in the production and use of urban space is therefore important. It is argued that urban space is a product of complex, often contradictory, social interactions, which are simultaneously social and spatial. However, the intervening agents that shape the built environment and arguably urban space reveal divergent views and conflicting rationalities. Cape Town, South Africa, forms the backdrop for preliminary exploratory studies, which rely on documentary evidence and unstructured interviews with public and private role-players in the society. While Cape Town forms the setting for this study, the subject of discussion is relevant on a global scale. An argument is developed for the need for interdisciplinary cooperation and knowledge sharing among built environment professionals, especially in the pre- and post-project stages of building and infrastructure projects.

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  1. Urban Real Estate Research Unit, Department of Construction Economics and Management, University of Cape Town, Level 5 Snape Building, Upper Campus, Private Bag X3, Rondebosch, Cape Town, 7701, South Africa

    Uche Ordor & Kathy Michell

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  1. Uche Ordor
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Ordor, U., Michell, K. Exploring Interdisciplinary Cooperation in the Relationship Between Urban Management Strategies, Modes of Production and the Production of Urban Space in Cape Town, South Africa. Urban Forum 33, 153–171 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12132-021-09439-3

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