Bénit-Gbaffou C (2023), "You Can't Compare Marseille With Johannesburg!?", in Neema Kudva, John Forester, Jane Rongerude, Janice Barry, Claire Bénit-Gbaffou, Samina Raja, John Arroyo & Sheryl-Ann Simpson (06 Oct 2023): Wrestling with Context, Planning Theory & Practice, 12-17,

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14649357.2023.2256185

This article is part of a thematic section in the North American journal Planning Theory and PracticeThis book, coordinated by Neema Kudva and John Forester, is devoted to the notion of context in urban planning: the place that urban planners give it in their interventions, and the ways in which they confront contexts that are radically different from those in which they are accustomed to intervening. Claire Bénit-Gbaffou, who has lived in Johannesburg for many years and now lives in Marseilles, is looking at a subject that is common to both contexts - the informal practice of barbecuing in public parks, and the municipal responses to these practices. The echoes, similarities and differences provide an opportunity to reflect on the notion of the 'progressive city' and the concept of 'institutional activism', and the meanings they take on in these two parallel contexts: post-apartheid Johannesburg and the Marseille of the Printemps Marseillais.