Social Infrastructures wins UCT Award
Social Infrastructures, convened by Dr Janice McMillan and headed by Ziyanda Ndzendze-Majombozi and Lindokuhle Njozela, have won the 2016 UCT Collaborative Education Practice Award. The course, located with the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment (EBE) provides a social context for emerging professionals to locate their technical and disciplinary knowledge, asking them to think about community engagement and some of the challenges faced by cities in the global South.
The award is given to educational projects which utilise interdisciplinary collaboration and employs innovative pedagogy, while simultaneously drawing on relevant literature, shows responsiveness to monitoring and evaluation, and provides a strong developmental opportunity for students.
Social Infrastructure students at a session at the Phillipi Horticultural Area.
In 2016, Social Infrastructures was divided into two parts, with the first part introducing students to concepts and processes of learning and engagement with off-campus constituencies in ways which are authentic and ethical, while the second part zoomed in on a series of challenges facing cities and communities which are important for all graduates to think about in the 21st century. Themes on the 2016 course included:
- Cities, Infrastructure and Social change
- Urban Food Security
- Climate Change & Transformative Adaptation
- Water, Sanitation and Service Delivery
- The Social Construction of ‘Jay Walking’
- Disability and Social Context