High stakes, High Hopes: Urban Theory in Partnership

About Prof. Sophie Oldfield

Trained in the United States (PhD, University of Minnesota), Sophie Oldfield holds the University of Cape Town–University of Basel Professorship in Urban Studies, based at the African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town. She is internationally recognised as an urban geographer for research on Cities in the Global South through her theoretical and primary research, and as co-editor of the Routledge Handbook on Cities of the Global South (2014). Her research is grounded in empirical and epistemological questions central to urban theory. Focusing on housing, informality and governance, mobilising and social movement organising, and urban politics, she pays close attention to political practice and everyday urban geographies, analysing the ways in which citizens and organized movements craft agency to engage and contest the state. She has a track record of excellence in collaborative research practice, challenging how academics work in and between "university" and "community". Commitment to this collaborative approach lies at the heart of her research and writing on cities of the global south.