- first study of inter-city cooperation and from a planning point of view in South Africa    843 kb by    Sihlongonyane, Mfaniseni Fana | sihlongonyanem@archplan.wits.ac.za    Short Outline Many cities now find themselves dealing with various development issues that cut across urban boundaries and national borders due to the influence of globalisation. Dealing with these issues single-handedly proves to be a futile exercise. Inter-city cooperation has emerged as a promising response to this challenge and this paper explores the historical evolution of inter-city cooperation in South Africa and how it may reward the future growth of a city like Johannesburg in its quest to become a world class African city. Abstract Inter-city cooperation in South Africa: Planning Implications for the City of Johannesburg The rapid growth of cities and the stringent global economic conditions in the developing world have motivated increased interaction between cities and (re) shaped their local economic, social, and political spaces. Many cities now find themselves dealing with various development issues (informal sector, scavenging, environmental degradation, unemployment, etc) arising from the influence of external globalisation factors, so much so, that dealing with them single-handedly proves to be a futile exercise. The major question raised by this challenge, is how to make cities more livable, environmentally sound and sustainable for the urban poor and at the same time be globally competitive (in terms of attraction investments? Inter-city cooperation has emerged with a promising response to this challenge and this paper explores the historical evolution of inter-city cooperation in South Africa and how it may reward the future growth of a city like Johannesburg in its quest to become a world class African city. The paper explores this issue for the first time in South Africa and most strikingly, the planning perspective (as different to urban management perspective) to this issue will be breaking new ground for debate and contest. Throwing this new debate onto the live polemic about the ‘Johannesburg as an African city’ (burning issue which I wrote about earlier) will further animate the debate not only to interest urban planners in the South Africa but all planners in cities of a similar history to that of Johannesburg. It provides an immediate rich ground for comparison to the wide exchange of experiences and opinions among planners and researchers from elsewhere who are involved in inter-city cooperation since it opens a new window of relationships between globalization and localism for cities in the developing world. Submitted by: Mfaniseni Fana Sihlongonyane University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg School of Architecture and Planning, WITS 2050 Tel.: +27 11 717 7706 Fax.: +27 11 403 2519 Email: Sihlongonyanem@archplan.wits.ac.za Keywords inter-city cooperation Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2003: Planning in a more globalized World   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper