Browsing by Author "Brown-Luthango, Mercy"

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    Caught in between policies: the intertwined challenges of access to land and housing in Gaborone, Botswana
    (2021) Montsho, Oduetse; Brown-Luthango, Mercy
    A thorough examination of policies and guidelines tailored towards enabling access to land and housing in Gaborone suggests incongruences' inherent in these strategies. Besides, planners and policymakers' continuous oversight to recognise the complexities of the urban everyday survival strategies and the lived experiences of the populace needs to be investigated. Numerous interventions have been introduced to facilitate land and housing access for low-income households in Gaborone. Even so, restricted access to these assets remains an enormous task, proven complex and problematic to resolve. The empirical evidence specifies the predominant situation articulated by a clash of rationalities between policies and everyday socio-economic practices of access to land and housing by low income households in Gaborone. The investigation of these tensions between policies promoting access to land and housing and the advocacy of the Self-Help Housing Agency as the primary rationale for home building and ownership by low-income households in Gaborone was articulated through policy assessment and analysis. Furthermore, in-depth interviews to appreciate the affected populace's lived experiences in response to the practicality of these policies was conducted. In terms of findings, this research has established that urban environments are persistently transformed with new configurations relating to access to land and housing frequently surfacing. Moreover, urban land and housing management policies fail to get in touch with the complexities of grassroots experience with access to land and housing in Gaborone. There is also the entrenchment of low-income households in a vicious circle of poverty and living precariously at the urban fringes with no security of tenure and affordable housing opportunities. All these experiences and practices resonate with the current endeavours to evaluate the realities of accessing land and housing resources in cities, as well as their correlation with promoting livelihood strategies for low-income households.
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    Hustle Revolution: Participation of young graduates in the informal economy of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
    (2024) Chipangura, Moreblessing; Brown-Luthango, Mercy; Magidi, Martin
    The main purpose of the study was to investigate the experiences of young graduates who participate in the informal economy of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. This study aimed to answer the question of whether formal education gives young graduates competing in the informal economy a competitive advantage or disadvantage. This was done through in-depth interviews, hanging out (observations) and casual conversations with young graduates who participate in the informal economy in Bulawayo and organisations that work with youth in the city. Twelve participants were selected using snowball and purposive sampling techniques. The study was grounded in the concept of 'waithood' and Bourdieu's theory of practice, with a specific focus on the component of cultural capital. The study's findings demonstrate that to address the challenge of unemployment after graduation, young graduates participate in the informal economy. Results indicated that young graduates participate in the informal economy to enhance their livelihoods, pursue their passion, gain employment, cope with waithood and delayed adulthood and for multiple streams of income. Benefits such as financial independence, the ability to support families and getting employment were also noted in this study. This study found that formal education gives young graduates a competitive advantage that manifests itself as better business strategies as they operate in the informal economy of Bulawayo. However, young graduates highlighted challenges such as less hustle mentality, competition, and capital, just to mention a few. Prospects of future work by almost all the young graduates highlighted that they preferred to participate in both the formal and informal economy. The experiences of young graduates in the informal economy were positive and negative. This study recommends a policy that prioritises young graduates, structural changes in tertiary education and the economy, and support for small businesses in the informal economy. It also raises awareness of the mismatch between tertiary education and the changing needs of the labour market in Zimbabwe
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    The role of professionals in partnership-based urban upgrading interventions
    (2018) Malan, Johanna; Van Ryneveld, Mark; Brown-Luthango, Mercy
    In South Africa, current urban planning models and traditional state-led urban interventions seem to have noticeably failed to sustainably address the integrated problems that are evident in informal settlements throughout the country. In the case of many current urban interventions, professionals give technocratic solutions to problems in informal communities with little to no consultation or engagement with the affected community. The result is often that community's needs are not sufficiently met and the community is not capacitated to take full ownership of the solution. More often than not the intervention (technocratic solution) becomes mismanaged, underutilised and inevitably the solution is proven to be unsustainable. This phenomenon has highlighted the need for a new approach to addressing the needs of informal settlement dwellers. In recognition of the need for a new approach, this case study of a partnership-based urban upgrading intervention is conducted in order to make realistic recommendations regarding the value of professionals in partnership-based urban upgrading interventions as opposed to top-down interventions. The primary research question of this case study is thus: what lessons can be learnt about the role of the professional in partnership-based urban upgrading interventions by gaining insight on a successful partnership-based intervention? The Genius of SPACE (GOS) partnership, based in the informal settlement of Langrug in the Stellenbosch Municipality is used as the topic of the case study to answer the research question. The GOS partnership was initially formed to address greywater management and stormwater drainage challenges in the settlement. A capability analysis approach is utilised as a theoretical tool to investigate all of the different assets which might be available to the professional to contribute to addressing the social as well as the technical challenges that the GOS partnership aims to address. This tool ultimately contributes to the development of clear guiding principles for technical professionals working in urban upgrading partnerships. Some key guidelines for technical professionals in partnerships emerge from the case study and clearly show that a developmentally aligned partnership should ultimately be able to utilise not only technical abilities and skills but also social expertise to facilitate community mobilisation strategies that allow for highly responsive upgrading processes to ensure long-lasting structural as well as social change.