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Let’s dip back a little bit into a reality that’s stranger than fiction. Let’s talk about contributions which are quite grounded in and, perhaps, might speak about continuations of ongoing processes and trends in and around Johannesburg.
Reality continues to unfold – a Johannesburg reality, a South African reality that has resulted from and continues to rely on extractive practices like mining, agriculture, and water management. Some might say that we can extrapolate this reality in ways we see fit – in optimistic ways, in apathetic ways, in negative ways.
We’ve got ideas – ideas about food security at the household and neighborhood level. How are individuals, right now, developing pragmatic solutions towards growing food insecurity – solutions, like growing food in an urban condition, or getting grocery stores to stock produce from unregistered, communal farms? Right now? What are some ways these current solutions can be recombined into more effective configurations?
Or how about the state of law enforcement and private security in South Africa - when the state has been happily contracting out private security firms to enforce evictions or keep strikes and protests in check, with no sign of stopping, or when highly skilled and heavily equipped South African mercenaries and private military companies are still as active as ever across the globe, despite government bans? When protests against these processes fall on deaf ears, how might an emboldened security industry expand?
These contributions take existing components of various processes, and then extend, recombine - surgically graft them onto and into speculations of a near-future, or a reality which is just out of view, or right around the corner. Welcome to these extrapolated realities.
