Subversion from within? altruism, institutions and technologies for development

Abstract:

This paper reflects upon experiences from an ongoing action research in the participatory design and making of a small public space in an informal settlement in Cape Town (South Africa). The transdisciplinary research project is teamwork between academics, practitioners, and a community-based company which is the implementing agent for a broader informal settlement upgrading programme. The wider programme, which is jointly funded by the City of Cape Town and the German Government, has achieved widely acclaimed success in many respects. The paper juxtaposes preconditions for sustainable development as expressed in UCT’s strategic goals against the operational realities at project level to assess congruency between broader normative objectives and the signals that motivate individuals’ actions. The results point to the need for some fundamental changes if ostensibly altruistic ethos espoused by many institutions is to realistically channel their employees’ choices towards research endeavours for incubation of technologies to sustain present and future human generations.