Informal community-based early childhood development as a focus for urban public theology in South Africa

Hannes van der Walt, Ignatius Swart, Stephan de Beer July 30, 2020

This article highlights important dimensions of public theology and shows how the identifieddimensions are relevant to the specific situation of informal early childhood development (ECD) facilities in a South African urban setting. The article considers the contributions andchallenges of informal community-based ECD on the basis of research conducted in the Rustenburg/Phokeng area of the North..

The Centre’s research approach is to follow a praxis-methodology, assuming deep local immersion in communities, from where analytical, reflective, visioning and strategic tools are employed to read society, to foster a critical consciousness, and to make urban change.

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Our research is engaged and trans-disciplinary, bringing together academics, activists, practitioners and community members, to share diverse experiences and knowledges, to collaborate as equals, to facilitate new partnerships, and to foster ownership for change-making and policy formation from below

Centre for Faith and Community

Centre for Faith and Community1 month ago

Dear Friends
Applications for our leadership in urban transformation course is still open. Should you feel called to join this year's cohort please contact Lance at Lance.Thomas@up.ac.za as soon as possible

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Centre for Faith and Community1 month ago

In City-making from below, Stephan De Beer and Mark Oranje make a case for communities to resist and reconstruct in multiple ways and places as an alternative to 'top-down' urban processes.

"A different political imagination is required, with small communities at the bottom of the urban ladder, if they are to be truly included as participants in urban processes, beneficiaries of urban resources, and contributors to urban well-being. In this instance, 'different' is meant in the sense of shifting from expecting external intervention through planners or politicians ―to an embrace of the urgency to take action as local communities themselves."
Excerpt from City-making from below: A call for communities of resistance and reconstruction.
The full article can be found here: https://www.research.centreforfaithandcommunity.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/TPR-74de-Beer-Oranje.pdf

video via Leadership Foundations

City-making from below - A hopeful imagination

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Centre for Faith and Community1 month ago

No one chooses perpetual struggle and hostility over the place they call home, unless eking out a living in a hostile place is better than the place they call home.

In "How does justice smell? Reflections on space and place, justice and the body" Jacob Meiring reflects on the notions of space and justice from a contemporary theological anthropology perspective.

The full article can be found here: https://www.research.centreforfaithandcommunity.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Meiring-How-does-Justice-smell.pdf

#Reflection #refugees #theology

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Centre for Faith and Community2 months ago

Homelessness and Covid-19 in the City of Tshwane: Doing liberation theology undercover – A conversation with Ivan Petrella by Stephan de Beer looks at the city of Tshwane's response to the homelessness crisis that arose due to the lockdown.

The full article is available on the HTS Theological Studies journal website here:
https://lnkd.in/eWmdqhZ

Homelessness and Covid-19 in the City of Tshwane: Doing liberation theology undercover – A conversation with Ivan Petrella | de Beer | HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies

hts.org.za

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Centre for Faith and Community2 months ago

When see the current disconnect between the church and it's people, we are reminded that Black Theology is meant to be an intrinsic part of the liberation story, that it should be and could still be a theology that speaks to core of the African experience.

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