Provides a comparative study of the complex governance challenges confronting city-regions in each of the BRICS countries. It traces how governance approaches emerge from the disparate intentions, actions and practices of multiple collaborating and competing actors, working in diverse contexts of political settlement and culture.

The scale and pace of urban change in the recent past has been disorienting. As individual cities evolve into complex urban agglomerations, scholars battle to find adequate vocabularies for contemporary urban processes while practitioners search for meaningful governance responses. Governing Complex City-Regions in the Twenty-first Century explores the ongoing evolution of metropolitan governance as diverse urban agents grapple with the dilemmas of collective action across multi-layered and fragmented institutions, in contexts where there are also manifold centres of influence and decision-making.

Whereas much of the existing literature is founded on the settled urban contexts of Western Europe and North America this book draws on the experiences of the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). The author shows that governance approaches are rarely designed but emerge, rather, from the disparate intentions, actions and practices of multiple collaborating and competing actors working within diverse contexts of political settlement and political culture. Intended for students, academics and professionals, the book does not offer packaged solutions or easy answers to the challenges of urban governance, but it does show the value of comparative study in inspiring new thought and perspectives, which could lead to improved governance practice within South African contexts.

Providing an in-depth exploration of the complexities of densification policy and processes, this book brings the important experiences of densification in Johannesburg into conversation with a range of cities in Africa, the BRICS countries and the Global North. It moves beyond the divisive debate over whether densification is good or bad, adding nuance and complexity to the calls from multilateral organisations for densification as a key urban strategy.   Using empirical work in a comparative frame, Densifying the City? examines how densification policies and processes have manifested often in unanticipated or contrary ways. It offers important insights into resident-led densification and the processes and motivations that drive these activities. This will be an invigorating read for urban studies and urban planning scholars looking to move beyond a basic understanding of densifying cities to understanding the strategy behind it and its successes. Urban policy makers will also appreciate the use of key case studies throughout the book.

The Promise of Planning explores the experience of planning internationally since the global financial crisis, focusing on South Africa.

The book is a response to a decade-plus in which state-led planning has re-emerged as a putative means for achieving developmental goals (as indicated in global initiatives such as the New Urban Agenda) and where planning in South Africa has consolidated in terms of its legal and policy basis. However, the return of planning is happening in an inauspicious context, with economic fragilities, technological shifts, political populism, institutional complexities, and more, threatening to upturn the "new promise of planning." The book provides a careful analytical account of planning in South Africa and how and why its promises have been difficult to achieve.

Building on the authors’ previous book, Planning and Transformation, the book sheds light on planning as an increasingly complex and diverse governmental practice within a perpetually changing world. It can be used as a resource for planners who must make good on the new promise of planning while navigating the risks and threats of the contemporary world, as well as students and faculty interested in international planning debates and the South African case.

It is ironic that a turbulent and painful history presents some of the most magnificent opportunities available for tourism and traveling in South Africa. Despite the symbolic and developmental importance of this area of tourism, there have been few serious attempts to capitalize on the resources provided by the history of resistance to Apartheid. The number of heritage-related developments, currently in progress, offer the prospect of a network of sites linked to struggle travel across the country. Currently however 'struggle tourism' is largely confined to the major icons of struggle history, namely Robben Island and Soweto. These are indeed important and evocative places that should not be missed but they are certainly not the only sites of interest - the diversity and complexity of South African historical experience remains largely hidden from view. Gradually however a richer tapestry is being revealed, and travelers are increasingly able to experience more of the tragic yet remarkable history of this country.

Spiritual travel is an area of growth as more and more people seek refuge from the materialism and superficiality of life in the post-modern world. Spiritual travel includes pilgrimage to sacred sites, religious retreats, or simply visits to places associated with the great religions of the world. In the popular mind South Africa may not be associated with spiritual travel in the way that, for example, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, India, Tibet, or Peru might be. South Africa does not even have the great religious architecture of Europe or the Far East. However, South Africa does have a richness and diversity of places, associated with religious experience and spirituality that few other countries could claim.

In the years after the 1994 transition to democracy in South Africa, planners were convinced that they would be able to successfully promote a vision of integrated, equitable and sustainable cities, and counter the spatial distortions created by apartheid. This book explores the experience of planning in South Africa during the ten years from 1994, with the aim of contributing to key international debates in planning theory. The authors argue that, because of the highly fluid nature of South African society during these last ten years, this country provides a useful 'laboratory' in which to explore the possibilities of achievement in the planning field. Thus while many of the factors which have affected planning have been context-specific, the nature of South Africa's transition and its relationship to global dynamics have meant that many of the issues which confront planners in other parts of the world are echoed here as well. Issues of governance, integration, market competitiveness, sustainability, democracy and values are as significant here as they are elsewhere, and the particular nature of the South African experience lends new insights to thinking on these questions.
The book is subdivided into sections which reflect the main themes in international planning debates. After Part A, which sets the scene in terms of the overall objectives of the book and the changing nature of planning under apartheid and in the post-apartheid era, the sections deal with:
Planning and governance, including planning at the local, regional, national and transnational scales;
Discourses of planning, including those of spatial frameworks, integration and transformation, planning'srelationship to the market, and discourses related to environment and sustainability;
Planning and society, including professionalism, education, planning values, its response to diversity and informality, and to the big social issues of AIDS, poverty and crime
A concluding section considers the power of planning in the South African context and the limits to its power.

In the years after the 1994 transition to democracy in South Africa, planners were convinced that they would be able to successfully promote a vision of integrated, equitable and sustainable cities, and counter the spatial distortions created by apartheid. This book explores the experience of planning in South Africa during the ten years from 1994, with the aim of contributing to key international debates in planning theory. The authors argue that, because of the highly fluid nature of South African society during these last ten years, this country provides a useful 'laboratory' in which to explore the possibilities of achievement in the planning field. Thus while many of the factors which have affected planning have been context-specific, the nature of South Africa's transition and its relationship to global dynamics have meant that many of the issues which confront planners in other parts of the world are echoed here as well. Issues of governance, integration, market competitiveness, sustainability, democracy and values are as significant here as they are elsewhere, and the particular nature of the South African experience lends new insights to thinking on these questions.
The book is subdivided into sections which reflect the main themes in international planning debates. After Part A, which sets the scene in terms of the overall objectives of the book and the changing nature of planning under apartheid and in the post-apartheid era, the sections deal with:
Planning and governance, including planning at the local, regional, national and transnational scales;
Discourses of planning, including those of spatial frameworks, integration and transformation, planning'srelationship to the market, and discourses related to environment and sustainability;
Planning and society, including professionalism, education, planning values, its response to diversity and informality, and to the big social issues of AIDS, poverty and crime
A concluding section considers the power of planning in the South African context and the limits to its power.

South Africa is a remarkable land of extraordinary beauty, a rich and colourful tapestry of diverse cultures and endless vistas that simply beg to be explored. In this handy little guide, South Africa's Top Sites - Art and Culture, we reveal and explore the rich cultural diversity of the visual arts, film, theatre, literature, music and architecture; which are a window into the history, life and culture of the country.

The richness of the creative arts and the astonishing creativity has triumphed in spite of the traumatic history consequently, South Africa's importance as a destination for cultural tourism is increasingly being recognised.

Sites included:

• Iziko Museums - Cape Town,
• District Six Museum
• Evita Se Peron - Darling
• Grahamstown and National Arts Festival
• Literary Eastern Cape
• The Owl House at Nieu Bethesda
• Newtown, Sophiatown , Literary Johannesburg, National Gallery (Johannesburg)
• The Groot Marico - outside Rustenberg
• Rock Art - Drakenberg, Kimberley, Cederberg, Estern Hihlands (Free-State), Blombos Cave (Western Cape)
• Ixopo - Cry of the Beloved Country
• Jackson Hlongwane - Mpumalangha
• Gamka's Kloof - Western Cape

'Can We Have a Chat About Eddie?' is a comic novel which examines the power our environment has to shape our identity and challenges authoritarian notions of right and wrong. In 1943 Nora Empire's only son, Edward, is reported missing following a bombing raid over Cologne. Twenty years later Edward Roberts is born and Nora is asked to look after him while his mother runs the village Post Office. Over the next fourteen years a close bond develops between the pair and Eddie becomes fascinated by both the mystery surrounding his namesake's death and what he perceives to be the continuing struggle against fascism, particularly as it manifests itself at Oldcastle Grammar School. Eddie's subsequent moral crusade and refusal to accept his position in society bring him into continual conflict with the authorities; a conflict which eventually leads to his arrest. Can Eddie change his destiny?