We are delighted to have Gilbert Siame from the University of Zambia joining us in our IUSD lecture series. Gilbert will talk about “Understanding the Formal-Informal Interface in Southern Cities: The Case of Soweto Food Market in Lusaka, Zambia”.
Although it is widely recognized that informal sector activities heavily characterize urban systems in Africa, debates around African urbanization, development, planning and slum upgrading still fail to usefully conceptualize and characterize informality and its interface with formal actors, practices, and interactions in African cities. Based on research on the operations of the Soweto Retail and Wholesale Food Market this lecture takes urban food systems as an entry point to understanding the workings and complexity of the formal-informal continuum in an African city.
Gilbert Siame holds both a masters and PhD in city and regional planning from the University of Cape Town in South Africa. He is a lecturer and researcher in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies (GES) at the University of Zambia where he also founded and coordinates the Centre for Urban Research and Planning. Dr. Siame has done research and published on cities and climate change, urban resilience, climate change and water security, governance, urban informality, transdisciplinary research methodologies. He has over nine years of experience in co-leading and leading consortia-led research projects in Southern Africa and has over eight years of full-time research, graduate teaching and student mentorship in Zambia and Southern Africa and in Europe. He currently serves as full-time Associate Professor at the Norwegian University of Science and technology (NTNU), visiting lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and as external examiner for Universities of the Witwatersrand, Cape Town, Western Cape, and Free State – all in South Africa.
Understanding the Formal-Informal Interface in Southern Cities: The Case of Soweto Food Market in Lusaka, Zambia
by Dr Gilbert Siame (University of Zambia)
Monday, 12 June 2023, 15:00/3pm (CEST)
K1 building room 9.06, or online at https://unistuttgart.webex.com/unistuttgart-en/j.php?MTID=m704ce6680d839a284438c0940469da73
