Imagining the 21st Century Urban University promotes critical, policy-relevant dialogue on the role of universities, and their relationship with cities, in a rapidly urbanizing and globalizing world. Through empirical research and workshop discussions held in Atlanta, Singapore and Cape Town, South Africa, global perspectives from academic researchers, university administrators, and public policy officials provide a portrait of cutting-edge developments at the interface of higher education and urban society. In doing so, the project offers an opportunity to reappraise the university as a crucial collective actor both responding to and reshaping the landscapes of global urbanization.
Progress Timeline:
As part of a GSU International Collaborative Urban Research Grant, Jean-Paul Addie was in Cape Town in August to run the workshop “Locating the Urban University: International Dialogues with South African Policy and Practice”. The event, co-organized by the Urban Studies Institute and the Human Sciences Research Council in South Africa, explored two key themes: (1) the nexus of urban development and universities’ spatial practices in South Africa; and (2) universities’ role in producing urban knowledge, experts, and capacity-building to tackle the demands of 21st-century urbanization.
Research team and affiliated institutions: Jean-Paul Addie (Urban Studies Institute, Georgia State University), Michele Acuto and David Hornsby (University College London).