Contemporary Urban Challenges

This course focuses on urban change in South Africa, drawing together historical and contemporary analysis of social, political, economic and environmental dimensions of the South African city. The course includes a section on the historical geography of the South African city to contextualize contemporary challenges, and explores issues of race and gender politics in South African cities, as well as challenges of service delivery and natural systems. This conceptual material is grounded in field-based experiential learning in Cape Town. There is a compulsory fieldwork component involving half-day field excursions.

DP requirements: Attendance and satisfactory completion of practical including fieldwork and tutorial assignments; students must attain an average mark of not less than 40% for the coursework.

Assessment: Essays, a class test, practical assignments based on compulsory fieldwork and tutorial work count 50%; one 2-hour theory examination written in November counts 50% (subminimum of 40% required).

The University of Cape Town awards credits based on the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) to determine course and contact hour recommendations per course. 1 NQF credit represents roughly 10 notional hours of work which includes study time, assignments and examinations. Notional hours may very per courses depending on the course level and modality therefore, CEA recommends using NQF credits as a basis to determine U.S. equivalencies (1 NQF=.222 semester credits)