Politics and Urban Governance Research Group (PUG) Active Projects
Although the Politics and Urban Research Group (PUG) is relatively new, the team has been highly productive, both in producing outputs and securing research grants. PUG Research leads and participates in numerous projects with partners across the world. The following are four of PUG's current projects:
Early Career Researcher Workshop Series
Funder: British Academy; Mastercard Foundation and University of Cambridge
Duration: 2025 - 2026
Aim: To support emerging scholars and postgraduate students in developing research skills and experience. The series focuses particularly on strengthening research capacity among African researchers. It is grounded in a commitment to epistemic justice and aims to challenge power imbalances in knowledge production by fostering critical, engaged, and innovative research, and promoting collaboration beyond academia
Caring for the other half: Strengthening sanitation governance to improve menstrual health in urban informal settlements
Funder: Matariki Network of Universities
Partners: Dr Dani Barrington (University of Western Australia) and Dr Carolyn Prouse (Queens University)
Duration: 2024-2025
Aim: This pilot project takes an interdisciplinary approach to explore how the governance of publicly provided sanitation in urban informal settlements affects the achievement of multidimensional menstrual health. Using a case study in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, South Africa, we apply Participatory Action Research (PAR) to understand the local context and support participants in advocating for positive change.
Citizen's Assembly
Funder: -
Partners: Centre for Research on Democracy (CREDO), Participedia and OECD’s Innovative Citizen Participation Network (ICPN)
Duration: 2024 – 2027
Aim: The working group was convened to investigate the relevance and suitability of citizens’ assemblies (CAs) for South African democracy and inform their local development, making a significant contribution to the global discourse as the first African-led research initiative of its kind
Interrogating Urban Crisis Representation and Response
Funder: British Academy
Partners: University of Sheffield, University of Cambridge, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Cali
Duration: 2023-2025
Aim: This study explores local perspectives of urban crisis representation and response across four ‘disorderly’ urban areas (two in South Africa and two in Colombia). Through privileging the lived experiences of marginalised populations and employing a novel comparative storytelling methodology, the project interrogates the relationship between crisis framings and ensuing responses, alongside the notion of crisis itself, in support of more effective urban crisis response.
Participedia: Participatory democracy
Funder: Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council
Partners: McMaster University
Duration: 2021-2025
Aim: Participedia aims to promote global cross-sectoral knowledge that supports democratic innovation and resilience.
Governing the Just Urban Transition (GoJUT)
Funder: National Research Foundation
Partners: Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO), University of Cambridge, University of Sheffield, Cardiff University
Duration: 2024-2026
Aim: This interdisciplinary project focuses on the coping strategies that businesses in low-income areas of Johannesburg and Cape Town use to secure water and energy.
Click here for more information
Early Career Researcher Workshop Series
Funder: British Academy; Mastercard Foundation and University of Cambridge
Duration: 2025 - 2026
Aim: To support emerging scholars and postgraduate students in developing research skills and experience. The series focuses particularly on strengthening research capacity among African researchers. It is grounded in a commitment to epistemic justice and aims to challenge power imbalances in knowledge production by fostering critical, engaged, and innovative research, and promoting collaboration beyond academia
Caring for the other half: Strengthening sanitation governance to improve menstrual health in urban informal settlements
Funder: Matariki Network of Universities
Partners: Dr Dani Barrington (University of Western Australia) and Dr Carolyn Prouse (Queens University)
Duration: 2024-2025
Aim: This pilot project takes an interdisciplinary approach to explore how the governance of publicly provided sanitation in urban informal settlements affects the achievement of multidimensional menstrual health. Using a case study in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, South Africa, we apply Participatory Action Research (PAR) to understand the local context and support participants in advocating for positive change.
Citizen's Assembly
Funder: -
Partners: Centre for Research on Democracy (CREDO), Participedia and OECD’s Innovative Citizen Participation Network (ICPN)
Duration: 2024 – 2027
Aim: The working group was convened to investigate the relevance and suitability of citizens’ assemblies (CAs) for South African democracy and inform their local development, making a significant contribution to the global discourse as the first African-led research initiative of its kind
Interrogating Urban Crisis Representation and Response
Funder: British Academy
Partners: University of Sheffield, University of Cambridge, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Cali
Duration: 2023-2025
Aim: This study explores local perspectives of urban crisis representation and response across four ‘disorderly’ urban areas (two in South Africa and two in Colombia). Through privileging the lived experiences of marginalised populations and employing a novel comparative storytelling methodology, the project interrogates the relationship between crisis framings and ensuing responses, alongside the notion of crisis itself, in support of more effective urban crisis response.
Participedia: Participatory democracy
Funder: Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council
Partners: McMaster University
Duration: 2021-2025
Aim: Participedia aims to promote global cross-sectoral knowledge that supports democratic innovation and resilience.
Governing the Just Urban Transition (GoJUT)
Funder: National Research Foundation
Partners: Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO), University of Cambridge, University of Sheffield, Cardiff University
Duration: 2024-2026
Aim: This interdisciplinary project focuses on the coping strategies that businesses in low-income areas of Johannesburg and Cape Town use to secure water and energy.
Click here for more information
