Cape Town, in bidding for World Design Capital 2014, committed itself to transforming lives by design – rebuilding community cohesion; reconnecting communities through infrastructural enhancement; and repositioning the city for the knowledge economy. A grand vision, no doubt, but how do we get designers and communities talking the same language and collectively solving pressing social problems to get us there?
Today, approximately 200 Social Justice Coalition (SJC) members will gather outside the Cape Town Civic Centre – joined by Mayor Patricia de Lille, ward councilors, and partners – to mark the City’s announcement (see here) of a new service for informal settlements which could drastically improve the quality of sanitation services.
Social Justice Coalition (SJC) members joined the Congress of South African Trade Union’s (COSATU) protest in the Cape Town city centre today. The protest – attended by various union movements and civil society organisations – called on government to address a number of issues facing poor and working class people in South Africa. These…
Cape Town has been awarded the right to host the World Design Capital 2014 (WDC2014) against stiff competition from cities across the planet, in large part because of the Cape Town Partnership’s bold and candid bid. The bid promised to use the year-long event to “deal with the vast imbalances that exist in our society”,…