Prof. Anciano delivers inaugural lecture at UWC

On 4 September 2025, Professor Fiona Anciano, founder of the Politics and Urban Governance (PUG) Research Group, delivered her Professorial Inaugural Lecture at the University of the Western Cape. Her lecture, entitled “Beyond the Ballot: Rethinking Urban Governance in the Shadows of Democracy,” marked a significant milestone in her academic career.

In her address, Professor Anciano reflected on her research journey exploring urban governance, democracy, and citizen engagement in South Africa. Drawing from her influential projects such as Democracy Disconnected and the Lockdown Diaries, she examined how citizens and communities often self-organize to provide essential services in the absence of effective state structures—a process she describes as “hybridized governance.”

This was also an opportunity to celebrate Prof. Anciano’s appointment as the EMS Chair of Democracy and Citizenship, at UWC. Colleagues and attendees commended Professor Anciano for her innovative research methods and her commitment to making democracy meaningful for ordinary citizens.

Professorial inaugural lectures are an important academic tradition that celebrate the achievements of newly appointed professors and provide a platform to share their scholarly work with the university community and the public.

Watch the full lecture below.

Beyond The Ballot: Rethinking Urban Governance In The Shadows Of Democracy

Who governs when the state does not deliver? How does this mesh with democracy in principle and practice? South Africa is known for its strong civil society and celebrated democratic ethos. Yet, the governance systems introduced during the democratic transition have largely failed to deliver economic freedom. This lecture brings together two conceptual frameworks – urban governance and participatory democracy – to examine both the promises and the pitfalls of democracy in contemporary South African cities. It reflects on how urban governance actually functions, and who holds the power to shape the city, when citizens feel increasingly disconnected from the outcomes of formal democratic processes. The talk will draw on two decades of innovative participatory research with marginalized residents in South African cities, using visual material from methods such as Photovoice and storytelling. Collectively, these conceptual frameworks and qualitative data indicate that strengthening democratic governance to achieve more justice-oriented service delivery requires an in-depth understanding of the nature, practices, and potential of joint governance – which may be collaborative or conflictual – between government, residents and civil society. Neither state-centric approaches, with their reliance on technical policy solutions, nor formal democratic processes alone have produced just and sustainable service delivery. Instead, I reflect on the role of informal governance and how it contributes to what can be termed a participatory patchwork democracy — a form of everyday democratic practice that builds meaningfully on South Africa’s democratic ethos.