Acknowledging ‘urban overlookedness’ is an attempt to create awareness for that which might be overlooked—certain cities; places and populations in cities; sectors, stories or solutions; and forms of urban resources or leadership—whilst at the same time acknowledging that we are being looked at. This dual acknowledgement is an invitation into a scholarship of care that embraces possible new agendas, whilst discerning possible new solidarities. Considering whether urban overlookedness is ignorance, accidental or deliberate, this article offers reflections on a praxis that can counter overlookedness, grounded in a love that is watchful—refusing to look away, to forget or to succumb to numbness. Validating the disenfranchised and continuous remembering are two of the critical political actions such a praxis insists on. The article departs from a commitment to issues of housing and homelessness in urban South Africa and fuses perspectives from practical theology, community development and urban planning.
AdlerN. J., & HansenH. (2012). Daring to care: Scholarship that encourages the courage of our convictions. Journal of Management Inquiry, 21(2), 128–139. https://doi.org/10.1177/1056492611427801
2.
AkatukundaE. (2024). Repositioning theological institutions for urban ministry: A case for the Kampala Evangelical School of Theology (KEST). Missionalia: Southern African Journal of Missiology, 51, 21–40.
3.
ChattertonP., HodkinsonS., & PickerillJ. (2010). Beyond scholar activism: Strategic interventions inside and outside the neoliberal university. ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies, 9(2), 245–275.
De BeerS. (2014). Jesus in the dumping sites: Doing theology in the overlaps of human and material waste. HTS Theological Studies, 70(3), 1–8.
6.
De BeerS. (2022). Urban Africa 2050: Imagining theological education formation for flourishing African cities. International Bulletin of Mission Research, 46(2), 212–222. https://doi.org/10.1177/23969393211006398
7.
De BeerS. (2023). Everyone counted, counts. Research report on the Tshwane homeless count. Centre for Faith and Community, University of Pretoria.
8.
De BeerS. (2025a). Decolonizing the built environment in and around a university campus. In MakakavhuleK. & LandmanK. (Eds.), Decolonizing the built environment. Process, product, and pedagogy (pp. 94–115). Routledge.
9.
De BeerS. (2025b). Christians in the cities of Johannesburg and Pretoria: Becoming in an African megacity. Bloomsbury Press.
10.
De BeerS., & HugoJ. (2021). Homelessness and COVID-19 in the city of Tshwane (Research Report). University of Pretoria.
11.
De VosP. F. (2014). Homelands. A narrative inquiry into home and belonging in an informal settlement in South Africa [Doctoral dissertation]. University of Alberta.
12.
GeertzC. (1973). Thick description: Toward an interpretive theory of culture. Inthe interpretation of cultures: Selected essays (pp. 3–30). Basic Books.
13.
GodfreyL., StrydomW., & PhukubyeR. (2016). Integrating the informal sector in the South African waste and recycling economy in the context of extended producer responsibility (CSIR Briefing Note). https://www.csir.co.za/sites/default/files/Documents/Policy%20Brief_Informal%20Sector_CSIR%20final.pdf
14.
HaasA. R. N. (2022, June20). Africa’s smaller cities are usually overlooked: They shouldn’t be. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/africas-smaller-cities-are-usually-overlooked-they-shouldnt-be-185014
15.
HuchzermeyerM. (2011). Cities with ‘slums’: From informal settlement eradication to a right to the city in Africa. University of Cape Town.
16.
LambJ. (2008). Unloved places: An overlooked opportunity for urban morphology. Urban Morphology, 12(2), 136–138.
17.
MbembeA., DlaminiN., & KhunouG. (2004). Soweto now. Public Culture16(3), 499–506.
18.
MutembaJ. (2011). Dying like a dog (unpublished reflection). Centre for Faith and Community. University of Pretoria.
19.
NdabaT. (2024). Urban studio. Connection, 1, 13.
20.
NugrahaE., WeseleyJ., RuszczykH. A., De VilliersI., & ZhaoY. (2023). Overlooked cities: Shifting the gaze in research and practice in global urban studies. Cities, 133, 104044.
21.
O’RiordanR. (2021, April26). Treated like dirt: Urban soil is often overlooked as a resource. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/treated-like-dirt-urban-soil-is-often-overlooked-as-a-resource-158571
22.
PieterseE. (2011). Grasping the unknowable: Coming to grips with African urbanisms. Social Dynamics, 37(1), 5–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/02533952.2011.569994
23.
Private Property. (n.d.). Property for sale in Atlantic seaboard. https://www.privateproperty.co.za/for-sale/western-cape/cape-town/atlantic-seaboard/1683
24.
RoyA. (1997). The god of small things. Flamingo.
25.
RoyA. (2001). Power politics. South End Press.
26.
RoyA. (2002). The algebra of infinite justice. Penguin Books India.
27.
RoyA. (2006). Ordinary person’s guide to empire. Penguin Books India.
28.
RuszczykH. A., NugrahaE., & De VilliersI. (2021). Overlooked cities: Power, politics and knowledge beyond the urban south. Routledge.
29.
SimoneA. M. (2004). For the city yet to come: Changing African life in four cities. Duke University Press.
30.
StrehleS. (2008). Exiles and orphans: Arundhati Roy’s The god of small things. In StrehleS. (Ed.), Transnational women’s fiction. Unsettling home and homeland (pp. 126–152). Palgrave Macmillan.
31.
Van BaalenS. (2013). Down in the dumps: Maputo’s mighty municipal landfill. Think Africa Press. http://www.thinkafricapress.com/mozambique/down-dumps-maputo-mighty-municipal-landfill
32.
VanoloA. (2023). Autistic cities: Critical urbanism and the politics of neurodiversity. City27(1–2), 190–208.
33.
Van WyngaardC. G. J., & LouwM. (2023). Theology from the suburbs: The challenge of life for the city as a whole. International Journal of Public Theology, 17, 477–496.
34.
VellemV. (2014). The task of urban black public theology. HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies, 70(3), 2728.
