Current Research Interests

Developing planning theory which is of relevance to the global South and which can contribute to planning thought which has wider global applicability while being grounded in regional specificities. An Editor of Planning Theory and on the editorial boards of the Journal of Planning Education and Research and Progress in Planning.

Other areas:

• Planning education on the African continent (through the network of the Association of African Planning Schools – AAPS –  and the AAPS-ACC project on revitalizing planning education in Africa.
• Cities and health: the ACC CityLab Healthy Cities project.
• UN Habitat HS-Net Advisory Committee

Teaching Interests

• The Masters Programme in City and Regional Planning (School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics). Courses: regional planning; urban economic development, dissertation supervision.
• The Masters Programme linked to the ACC, entitled: Urban Infrastructure: Design and Management, offered in the EBE Faculty. Inputs into "Developing Cities: Issues and Strategies" (CIV5064Z).

Some recent publications:

Journals

Watson, V (2011): Changing planning law in Africa: an introduction, Urban Forum, 3, 203-208. (guest editor of special issue). 

Watson V (2011): Engaging with citizenship and urban struggle through an informality lens, Planning Theory and Practice 12(1): 150-153

Parnell, S, E Pieterse and V Watson (2009): Planning for cities in the global South: an African research agenda for sustainable human settlements, Progress in Planning 72: 233-241.

Watson V (2009) 'Seeing from the South: refocusing urban planning on the globe's central urban issues', Urban Studies, 46(11) 2259-2275.

Watson, V (2009): 'The planned city sweeps the poor away…': urban planning and 21^st century urbanization. Progress in Planning (72)3, 151-193.

Watson, V (2008) 'Down to Earth: linking planning theory and practice in the 'metropole' and beyond', International Planning Studies 13(3) 223-237.

Watson, V (2008) 'The internationalisation of planning education: issues, perceptions and priorities for action: comment', Town Planning Review 79(1) pp118-20.

Watson, V: (2006) "Deep Difference: diversity, planning and ethics, Planning Theory 5(1) pp 31-50. Nominated by Planning Theory for the AESOP best published paper award in 2007.

Stiftel, B., Watson V and Abramo P, (eds.) (2005): "Diálogos Internacionais em Planejamento Urbano e Regional". Special Issue of Cadernos IPPUR. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Instituto de Pesquisa e Planejamento Urbano e Regional. Spiegel,

A, V Watson and P Wilkinson (2005): "Women, Difference and Urbanisation Patterns in Cape Town, South Africa. Anthropology Southern Africa 28 (1&2). Pp 31-38

Books

Harrison P, Todes A , Watson V (2008): Planning and Transformation: Learning from the Post-Apartheid Experience. RTPI Library Series. Routledge: London and New York

Stiftel B., V Watson and H Acselrad (eds) (2007):  Dialogues in Urban and Regional Planning 2: Prize Papers from the World's Planning School Associations. Routledge, London.

Stiftel B and V Watson (eds) (2005): Dialogues in Urban and Regional Planning 1: Prize Papers from the World's Planning School Associations. Routledge, London.

Watson V (2002): Change and Continuity in Spatial Planning: metropolitan planning in Cape Town under political transition. Routledge, London and New York.

Chapters in books

Watson (2012 forthcoming): Planning theory and practice in a global context, in G Young and D Stevenson (eds), Research Companion to Planning and Culture, Ashgate.

Watson (2011 forthcoming): Communicative planning in the global South: experiences, prospects and predicaments, M Geyer (ed): International Handbook of Urban Policy Issues in the South. Edward Elgar.

Watson, V (2010): Informal settlements: in search of a home in the city, in D Vlahov, J Boufford, C Pearson and L Norris (eds): Urban Health: Global Perspectives. Jossey-Bass and John Wiley & Sons. Pp 305-316

Watson, V (2008): Conflicting rationalities: implications for planning theory and ethics, in Hillier J and Healey P (eds): Critical Essays in Planning Theory: volume 3 Contemporary Movements in Planning Theory. Pp 221-33

Ashgate: Aldershot. McGaffin R and V Watson (2008): "Les projets de développement intégré localisé. Le cas du corridor deWetton Lansdowne Philippi" in A Dubresson and S Jaglin (eds) Le Cap après l'apartheid. Gouvernance, aménagement et gestion urbaine, Karthala Press. Pp 69-86.

Watson V (2007) : Urban Planning and Twenty-first Century Cities : Can it Meet the Challenge? in A Garland, M Massoumi and B Ruble (eds) : Global Urban Poverty : Setting the Agenda. Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars, Washington DC. Pp 205-237

Watson V (2007): "Engaging with difference: understanding the limits of multiculturalism in planning in the South African context", in N Murray, N Shepherd and M Hall (eds): Desire Lines; Space, Memory and Identity in the Post-Apartheid City. Routledge, Oxford. Pp 67-79.

Watson V (2006): Managing South African cities: the everyday lives of urban citizens and the spatial / technical-managerial interface.  In T Marcus and A Hofmaenner (eds) Shifting Boundaries of Knowledge: Developing a Research Agenda for the Social Science, Law and Humanities. UKZN Press, Durban.  Pp 161-175.