Susan Parnell Ph.D
University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
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Sue Parnell is an urban geographer in the Department of Environmental and Geographical Sciences and is the Director of the ‘CityLab’ at the University of Cape Town (UCT) African Centre for Cities. Prior to her appointment at UCT she taught in the Wits University Geography Department (Johannesburg) and the School of Oriental African Studies (London). She is the author of over 80 academic papers, 4 edited volumes and 2 co-authored books. She is on the Editorial boards of 11 academic journals.
Sue’s early academic research was in the area of urban historical geography and focussed on the rise of racial residential segregation and the impact of colonialism on urbanisation and town planning in Sub-Saharan Africa. Since 1994 and democracy in South Africa her work has shifted to contemporary urban policy research (local government, poverty reduction and urban environmental justice). By its nature this research is not been purely academic, but has involved liasing with local and national government and international donors. Sue is also on the boards of several local NGOs concerned with poverty alleviation, sustainability and gender equity in post-apartheid South Africa. She serves on a number of national and international advisory research panels relating to urban reconstruction.
Research Interests/Expertise: urban policy research (local government, poverty reduction and urban environmental justice); poverty alleviation, sustainability and gender equity in post-apartheid South Africa; urban reconstruction
Selected Publications
Parnell, S. (2016). Defining a Global Urban Development Agenda. World Development, 78, pp. 529 – 540. doi: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2015.10.028
Adelekan, I., Johnson, C., Manda, M., Matyas, D., Mberu, B.U., Parnell, S., Pelling, M., Satterthwaite, D., & Vivekananda, J. (2015). Disaster risk and its reduction: an agenda for urban Africa. International Development Planning Review, 37(1), pp. 33 – 43. doi: 10.3828/idpr.2015.4
Deall, J., Parnell, S., & Albertyn, C. (2015). Elite Compacts in Africa: The role of Area-based Management in the New Governmentality of the Durban City-region. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 39(2), pp. 390 – 406. doi: 10.1111/1468-2427.12178
Patel, Z., Greyling, S., Parnell, S., & Pirie, G. (2015). Co-producing urban knowledge: experimenting with alternatives to ‘best practice’ for Cape Town, South Africa. International Development Planning Review, 37(2), pp. 187 – 203. doi: 10.3828/idpr.2015.15
Simon, D. & Parnell, S. (2014). National urbanization and urban strategies: necessary but absent policy instruments in Africa. In S. Parnell, E. Pieterse (Eds.) Africa’s Urban Revolution. pp. 237-256. London and New York: Zed Books.