BACKGROUND: Dialogue 02 - Different Urbanisations
This second dialogue in the series focusses on the role and limits of import and export of knowledge, technology and urbanisation patterns between different regions of the world, and questions how 'culturally different' the processes of urbanisation are or should be. These questions will be discussed using the example of Africa. This continent is at the beginning of a major wave of urbanisation and is theoretically still in the position to take decisions on how the African Urban Transition will take shape. But what happens when we export European or Asian urbanisation patterns and technologies to African cities (which is already happening)? Which approaches can be shared (imported) and which cannot? What influence do ‘different urbanisations’ have on the resulting urban resource flows?

BACKGROUND: The series
IASS and ANCB have initiated a series of Critical Dialogues on the creation and implementation of a new urban agenda in the political context of Habitat III (UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development to take place in Quito, Ecuador, in October 2016). Following the launch of the United Nations' Post-2015 Development Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals, 2016 is the year of Habitat III in which the New Urban Agenda will be set for the coming 20 years. Habitat III is thus the continuation of an important process to secure a renewed political commitment for sustainable urban development. However, the major question and the key to success is how to approach and implement such a New Urban Agenda ‘on the ground’.  This is why each of the public dialogues in this IASS-ANCB series addresses a topic of central importance to Habitat III from both an unconventional angle and an ‘on the ground’ perspective.