Cooper Emmott is a second-year Master of Urban and Regional Planning (MURP) student at UCLA with a passion for housing, community development and international planning. This summer, he is interning with the Development Action Group (DAG) in Cape Town, South Africa, where he’s contributing to projects focused on housing, land policy and spatial justice. In the Q&A below, Cooper reflects on his experience, the lessons he’s learned and how the internship is shaping his future career in planning.
Can you tell us about the work you’re doing this summer? What projects are you contributing to, and what does a typical day look like?
This summer, I’m working at the Development Action Group (DAG) in Cape Town, South Africa. I’ve been primarily involved with their Urban Land for Inclusive Cities team—on a research project on public land leasing as land value capture and on a tracking tool for municipal land release—and with their Civic Action Hub team—through local partnerships like with the University of Cape Town, on a social infrastructure course for engineering students and on a local area spatial planning studio for planning students. One of my favorite aspects of my work is how transversal it has been. For example, I’ve contributed to a project on the use of community land trusts for informal settlement upgrading, which has shown me how, by collaborating across teams, projects can benefit from the collective expertise of the whole organization. A typical day means working across these teams, which would not be possible without DAG staff being so welcoming, and I’m grateful they’ve let me in on their projects, which I know represent only a fraction of their work.
The Development Action Group focuses on housing, community development, and spatial justice. What has surprised or inspired you most about seeing this work firsthand in South Africa?
DAG’s body of work over its 40-year history is immense. It was formed by students protesting eviction campaigns during apartheid and has since grown into a leading housing advocacy group in Cape Town and all of South Africa. One of the most damaging and long-lasting effects of apartheid was the way the policy transformed cities across the country. Today, there are few cities in the world with worse spatial inequality than Cape Town. Since South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994, the City has done little to address this issue: new housing has historically been built on its periphery—away from job opportunities and social networks—reinforcing spatial apartheid. While at DAG, I’ve been inspired by my colleagues who have spent decades of their lives challenging this system. Their work has helped me recognize that change does not happen overnight but requires persistent, sustained effort over many years, in which, while the individual actors may change, the mission remains the same.
What skills or perspectives have you gained through this experience that you hope to bring back to UCLA and your future career?
This experience has given me perspective on my desire to work on housing issues in the Global South for my future career. As many cities in these parts of the world continue to grow, municipal finances have not kept pace, and NGOs like DAG have been asked to take on more responsibility. This work is incredibly important, but I’ve seen the turnover that comes with it, as people burn out or find more lucrative opportunities in the private sector or elsewhere. I’m only at DAG for 10 weeks, so these are reflections I’ll continue to contend with during my second year as a MURP at UCLA, but, in any case, this experience has reiterated for me the importance of being physically present in the communities I serve and of contributing to work that is locally situated.
