Placemaking as a participatory governance innovation for equitable urban futures in South African cities

Abstract

In South African cities, participatory governance processes are often turned into procedural formalism and tokenism elements, which further perpetuate legacies of exclusionary planning practice instead of co-production. The concept of placemaking is regularly theorised as a spatial design methodology, while its governance elements remain underexplored. This paper examines how placemaking activities result in participatory governance innovation, drawing on the experiences of an urban intermediary organisation, the Greater Tygerberg Partnership (GTP) from Bellville, Cape Town, South Africa. The study used a qualitative instrumental case study design grounded in collaborative inquiry, using data from semi-structured interviews with participants ranging from GTP staff, ordinary community members, and City of Cape Town officials. The findings identified characteristics such as co-design and co-stewardship elements, adaptive governance through tactical experimentation, and governance arrangements that live beyond the project cycle, being at the core of how GTP’s placemaking processes reconfigure participatory governance. The study also identified structural constraints that come with GTP being an intermediary organisation with primary financial dependence on the local government, when it comes to expanding participation beyond procedural consultation. These findings contribute to the theorisation of participatory governance innovation within placemaking processes that has implication on urban governance reform in South African cities.