Browsing by Author "Lethugile, Goabamang"

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    Encountering city governance: an analysis of street trading in Gaborone, Botswana
    (2020) Lethugile, Goabamang; Skinner, Caroline
    There is a need to review and recast how space is being planned and how regulations are responding to the realities of the informal economy. Street trading provides a critical platform to explore the dynamics and complexity of planning and management of informal activities in public spaces. This research explored how city governance shapes the practices of informal street trading in Gaborone, Botswana. It investigated how street traders navigate their daily trading and their spatial practices and strategies. Insights were gleaned through in-depth interviews with street traders in three different sites in Gaboroneand key informant interviews with politicians and government officials–both senior and lower level staff. Combining the government officials'and traders' perspectives has allowed for the exploration of the disjuncture betweenthe two. The interview findings indicated that the state continues to govern but with inappropriate tools, and traders continue to trade but in sub-optimum ways. The Gaborone Council has made some headway in accepting street traders but still provides little or no infrastructure. It is argued that traders themselves constitute public space, so their voices, practices, strategies and resilience need to be understood. The dissertation concludes by making recommendations that could improve conditions for all parties.
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    When a city embraces its paradox : the exploration of incremental waste mining of a decommissioned landfill site and its gradual transformation into a productive public space
    (2011) Lethugile, Goabamang; Muller, Liana
    Today, with the majority of the world's population now living in urban areas. the possibility and urgent need to provide them with adequate public spaces has never been greater for the planet. Where public places and space itself are lacking. many cities across the world are today investing in projects of reclaiming valuable land to create livable public spaces that respond to and improve social, economic, and environmental values. Such projects include reclaiming of derelict sites which are characterized mainly by poor environmental and physical conditions. The redevelopment of these types of sites has received a lot of attention in the past few years. Their transformation into public spaces represents a significant enhancement to the quality of life and land use. and at the same time. marks new commitment to the transformation of once· condemned sites. to new cultural and environmental uses. Landscape architects such as Peter Latz. James Comer and Bruce Mau have shown how to create culturally stimulating landscapes with a Iarge variety of uses and activities arising out of the derelict remains of past industry. (Loures and Panagopoulos. 2006) Derelict or lost spaces such as the ones created by closed landfills and closed down industrial sites provide possibilities of generating productive public spaces that could serve to address the needs of the growing population. Contemporary approaches to these sites are mostly driven by the idea of reclaiming space for a variety of uses, from the reuse of an industrial area. to conversion Into housing or a park. It is the assumption that these types of sites, because of their high degree of complexity and contestation. are particularly suited to test and develop different theoretical and practical approaches to the redesign of public or mixed-use open spaces. (Langhorst. 2009) .