APHP 2025 DIGITAL SYMPOSIUM: CALL FOR PAPERS
THEME: HERITAGE AND MASS URBANIZATION IN SOUTHERN AFRICA
The mass urbanization of previously rural populations in greater Southern Africa has created some of the fastest growing and poorest urban centres in the world. Globally the contrast between developed and developing countries and communities is becoming more acute, as is evident right here in Southern Africa. For example, the massive conurbation of Gauteng, with its population of 16.1 million, contains the equivalent of sixty-two percent of the total population of Australia. The contrast between the orderly, wealthy, dispersed urban centres in Australia and crowded, chaotic Gauteng is evident to all. And within Gauteng are the shocking contrasts of wealth and poverty that characterise very rapid urban growth in the developing world. Much the same, albeit on a smaller scale, is found in all the metropolitan and urban centres of greater Southern Africa. Whether it is Knysna or Durban or Harare or Luanda, the pressures for political, spatial and economic justice demanded by the urbanised are immense, and the means and skills to resolve these conflicts are limited.
This is the intensely contested realm within which heritage has to be evaluated, managed and, if possible, protected. All of which is made more difficult by the lack of resources, and often, the lack of a political will to maintain heritage assets.
In Southern Africa, one must ask, what is heritage, what is its role and relevance, how do we protect it, and what laws are needed? Perhaps defining in our context, how we train our heritage practitioners, what procedures and laws work for us, how to live out our world view and its values, is critical at this point in our journey? Can heritage planning, represented by a majority of architectural, archaeological and town planning practitioners, be truly representative of heritage concerns? And in our context, to what extent is heritage sustainable and to what extent can heritage contribute to our sustainability?
This is the broad theme and these are the challenges of our 2025 Virtual Symposium.
CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS
We call on members to submit proposals for presentation to the APHP Secretary who will pass them on to the organising committee. The proposal to include the presenter’s name, the title of the presentation and a 300 word summary.
Proposals to be submitted by not later than 1 August 2025.
The APHP organising committee will evaluate all proposals and select the most suitable.
Once the presentations have been selected we will publish a program and an application form for use by those wanting to attend.
The actual presentation of the eventual full paper to be a recorded video presentation or a recorded PowerPoint of not more than 30 minutes duration which, with the author’s permission, will in due course be posted on the APHP YouTube site.
SYMPOSIUM DETAILS
The symposium will be held on Thursday 20th November 2025, starting at 14:00 and finishing at 17:30, hosted on the APHP's Zoom platform.
