Exploring urban practice in a democratising society: opportunities, techniques and challenges

Abstract

By close consideration of carefully collected oral history accounts of planners, public administrators, community organisers and leaders, a great deal can be learned about both the challenges of governance and the opportunities that insightful and skilful practitioners can seize. This essay first discusses several of the blind spots that hamper practice-focused research and then draws on a novel research approach to give a series of practical suggestions for those who might wish to gather, produce and analyse vivid and engaged ‘practice stories’ – to reveal the complexities, difficulties and possibilities of South African public serving practices. 1Professor, Department of City and Regional Planning, Cornell University. For helpful comments on this and earlier drafts of the Bernstein Memorial Lecture, the author would like to thank Phil Harrison, Heather Campbell and Vanessa Watson, who bear no responsibility for the essay's remaining faults.