Mercy Brown-Luthango
Biographic Data
| ID | 6279429 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Mercy Brown-Luthango |
| GIVEN NAMES | Mercy |
| FAMILY NAME | Brown-Luthango |
| SIGNATURE | BROWN-LUTHANGO M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Cape Town |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6681-4387 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 17 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 11 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Is the informal economy a space for ‘waithood’ or a long-term livelihood strategy? Experiences of graduates in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
Youth unemployment has been a significant challenge, particularly in countries of the Global South, where rapid growth in the youth population coincides with insufficient job creation. While many studies focus on less educated youth, we assert that graduate youth have not received adequate attention, especially regarding their participation in the informal economy. Although obtaining higher education may offer them a perceived advantage over thei…
Exploring conflicting rationalities in densification policy and informal practices
Housing provision in Cape Town, like in many other African cities, is a highly contested issue. This is because of multiple and often competing demands for the provision of well-located housing and sustainable livelihoods in the context of shrinking natural resources, such as land, as well as environmental concerns. In this context, the need for high-density living environments has been expressed as an urgent policy concern. In this paper, we exp…
Co-production to reframe state practices in informal settlements
Mass urbanisation in cities of the global South, is causing cities to evolve, with informal settlements being central to this evolution. While local government is the official point of interaction for urban informal settlement dwellers, those interactions are often characterised by a lack of meaningful participation. Engaging with the co-production literature and two case studies of informal settlements in Cape Town, South Africa, this paper exam…
Bringing together urban systems and food systems theory and research is overdue
Urban dwellers’ food and nutritional wellbeing are both dependent on infrastructure and can be indicative of wider wellbeing in urban contexts and societal health. This paper focuses on the multiple relationships that exist between food and infrastructure to provide a thorough theoretical and empirical grounding to urgent work on urban food security and nutrition in the context of rapid urban and nutrition transitions in the South. We argue that …
Neo-liberalism (s), socio-spatial transformation and violence reduction in Cape Town – lessons from Medellin
Some of the contemporary debates within urban geography is around the changing nature of neoliberalism, how cities have become the new sites for capitalist accumulation through new forms of neoliberal urban governance and whether or not this holds true for cities in the global South. This paper focuses on two cities in the global South, Cape Town and Medellin and uses safety and spatial transformation as lenses to interrogate this issue through a…
Informal settlement upgrading and safety
Collective (in) efficacy, substance abuse and violence in “Freedom Park,” Cape Town
Brokering communities of knowledge and practice
Towards Effective City Planning—The Case of Cape Town in Identifying Potential Housing Land
Capturing Land Value Increment to Finance Infrastructure Investment—Possibilities for South Africa
Access to Land for the Urban Poor—Policy Proposals for South African Cities
Informal settlement upgrading and safety
Brokering communities of knowledge and practice
Exploring conflicting rationalities in densification policy and informal practices
Housing provision in Cape Town, like in many other African cities, is a highly contested issue. This is because of multiple and often competing demands for the provision of well-located housing and sustainable livelihoods in the context of shrinking natural resources, such as land, as well as environmental concerns. In this context, the need for high-density living environments has been expressed as an urgent policy concern. In this paper, we exp…
Collective (in) efficacy, substance abuse and violence in “Freedom Park,” Cape Town
Capturing Land Value Increment to Finance Infrastructure Investment—Possibilities for South Africa
Access to Land for the Urban Poor—Policy Proposals for South African Cities
Towards Effective City Planning—The Case of Cape Town in Identifying Potential Housing Land
Brokering communities of knowledge and practice
Collective (in) efficacy, substance abuse and violence in “Freedom Park,” Cape Town
Informal settlement upgrading and safety
Neo-liberalism (s), socio-spatial transformation and violence reduction in Cape Town – lessons from Medellin
Some of the contemporary debates within urban geography is around the changing nature of neoliberalism, how cities have become the new sites for capitalist accumulation through new forms of neoliberal urban governance and whether or not this holds true for cities in the global South. This paper focuses on two cities in the global South, Cape Town and Medellin and uses safety and spatial transformation as lenses to interrogate this issue through a…
Co-production to reframe state practices in informal settlements
Mass urbanisation in cities of the global South, is causing cities to evolve, with informal settlements being central to this evolution. While local government is the official point of interaction for urban informal settlement dwellers, those interactions are often characterised by a lack of meaningful participation. Engaging with the co-production literature and two case studies of informal settlements in Cape Town, South Africa, this paper exam…
Bringing together urban systems and food systems theory and research is overdue
Urban dwellers’ food and nutritional wellbeing are both dependent on infrastructure and can be indicative of wider wellbeing in urban contexts and societal health. This paper focuses on the multiple relationships that exist between food and infrastructure to provide a thorough theoretical and empirical grounding to urgent work on urban food security and nutrition in the context of rapid urban and nutrition transitions in the South. We argue that …
Exploring conflicting rationalities in densification policy and informal practices
Housing provision in Cape Town, like in many other African cities, is a highly contested issue. This is because of multiple and often competing demands for the provision of well-located housing and sustainable livelihoods in the context of shrinking natural resources, such as land, as well as environmental concerns. In this context, the need for high-density living environments has been expressed as an urgent policy concern. In this paper, we exp…
Is the informal economy a space for ‘waithood’ or a long-term livelihood strategy? Experiences of graduates in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
Youth unemployment has been a significant challenge, particularly in countries of the Global South, where rapid growth in the youth population coincides with insufficient job creation. While many studies focus on less educated youth, we assert that graduate youth have not received adequate attention, especially regarding their participation in the informal economy. Although obtaining higher education may offer them a perceived advantage over thei…
Geography (8 works) · Business (6 works) · Economic growth (6 works) · Economics (6 works) · Political science (6 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Urban and Rural Development Challenges (6 works) · Cape (5 works) · Urban Planning and Governance (5 works) · Archaeology (4 works)