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are the issues that the first part of the chapter grapples with, using the in-depth, frank and open interviewee reflections, the in-situ first-hand observations made by the researcher during the municipal visioning workshops in Malawi and Namibia, and complemented with the data emanating from the two census surveys. Having developed an understanding of the power dynamics in the case study, the second part of the chapter concerns itself with assessing the value placed by all respondents of the mentoring and the extent to which it actually improved the quality of the strategic planning process. As indicated in Chapter 1, gauging the effectiveness of the program is the third research objective identified in this project. Respondents’ perceptions of key factors that may impact on the mentoring outcomes are also discussed, and interesting findings emerge here that offer important insights for future planning practice.
6.2. The politics of city-to-city learning: where does the balance of power lie?
The complex issues of who controls the learning agenda, where the locus of power lies and how decisions are made are of critical importance to any researcher. This takes on an even greater significance, however, for a researcher working in the tradition of the practice movement, and committed to actively shaping a new progressive agenda for city planning, against a backdrop of the legacy of colonial and previously discriminatory planning practice, and the imperative to fundamentally redress these imbalances. Such a transformative agenda would involve the shifting of power from the global North to the global South, the structuring of a relationship between participating African cities that are equal, where cities are viewed as partners taking full ownership of the learning process and with Local Government Associations managing the funding of the program.
It is necessary to declare the researcher’s position at the outset so that his own views and biases are made explicit. This process of consciously bracketing one’s ideological position as suggested by many research leaders in the field over the years including Burns and Grove (1987), Gearing (2004), Tufford and Newman (2012) and Chan et al. (2013) was important in the research project in order not to consciously influence the outcome of the study. As the findings will show, the process of constant bracketing allowed a more rigorous interrogation of the respondents’ views and yielded a powerfully richer and more nuanced analysis that at times surprised the researcher.
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When the issue of control and domination of the learning process was raised with the eThekwini Municipality’s focus group participants, a robust discussion ensued after further probing from the researcher. The first position articulated strongly and very emotively from a senior official was that the control of the mentorship program lay firmly in the global North as the program was controlled by the UCLG in Barcelona, Spain.
The UCLG decides what happens and where it happens… sometimes the UCLG insists on timeframes that are not realistic and that the mentee city is not ready to host these sessions… The agenda on the Committee is not even set by us the city; the topic, the funds is set up by UCLG. The span of control is very limited for the mentee and mentor cities.
Head of Policy Office, eThekwini Municipality
Upon noting this immediate acknowledgement from this senior focus group respondent, the indication was that at first glance, the work of Power (2010) that contextualizes the dominant role of western development agencies seemed to be confirmed. More specifically, the warning by Clegg (2014: 389) about the circuits of knowledge and modern power and how they manifest through
“things and devices” stood out, almost demanding immediate validation. The emotive reflection by the respondent could at one level therefore have easily been interpreted as the UCLG deliberately ignoring the suggestion by Campbell (2012b) to play a far less direct role in the learning agenda and due to self-serving interests, consciously wanting to delay its transition towards the proposed more indirect broader coordinating apex role.
Through the process of conscious bracketing, however, ensuring that the discussion was not swayed in either direction, the researcher probed to ensure that this was indeed the consensual viewpoint of the group. In response to the inquisitive line of enquiry, soon another view emerged from the discussion that somewhat discounted or rather qualified this previous view:
Actually, for me it depends on where the funding, timeframes and the capacity are. So it is not necessarily about the global North versus the global South. Also the pendulum of control could be shifting with time as trust gets built. For example in the eThekwini – Sao
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Paulo mentorship program there has been shifting power relations over time. eThekwini is now paying for themselves for trips to Brazil and is not relying on outside funding and eThekwini is directing the progress made. The relationship between the two cities has also now really intensified.
Head of Planning, eThekwini Municipality
This was an extremely important qualification that was offered; achieved only through subtle, but persistent engagement by the researcher in an attempt to excavate for a powerful analysis of a complex and contested African reality. With this new perspective and after more debate the focus group participants generally did concede that perhaps it was too simplistic to frame power relations as merely a static global North-global South issue. In the final analysis, the participants suggested that what was critical was who controlled the funds and the strategic direction of the program.
They also conceded the possibility of a more fluid and complex power relationship that could easily shift with time as the process matured.
Building on this new insight, another perspective then emerged that went beyond the geography of the global North and South to examine geographies of control within the African continent:
At the end of the day, it is about who has the money and this is where power lies. Between mentor and mentee, eThekwini could even be seen as part of the controllers!
Head of Policy Office, eThekwini Municipality
This contention opened up fresh discussions that reinforced the view that the better financially resourced and capacitated eThekwini Municipality had to remain ever vigilant not to be seen as a neo-colonial power dictating how the mentorship process should unfold to its neighboring African mentees. This process of reflection and debate was useful, as prior to this research no space was created to critically examine eThekwini Municipality’s own role in the learning process and the extent to which it may be perceived to be controlling the mentorship program.
It is important to note at this point, that at the time of writing up this chapter (April, 2015), Durban had been a site of unconscionable attacks by local citizens on foreign nationals, many of whom were Malawian. Whilst this is certainly not part of the scope of the research, it is important to at